Gov. Jim Pillen says the goal is to make sure women and girls can fairly compete in sports.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has signed a new law requiring students to play on school sports teams based on their sex, a move he says is necessary to protect women and girls and their ability to fairly compete in sports.
The law makes sure that “we simply have a fair playing ground,” said Pillen on Wednesday at a signing ceremony, where he was joined by lawmakers, advocates of women’s rights, and several female athletes from Nebraska and across the country.
Among them was Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer from Tennessee who made national headlines in 2022 when she tied with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas for fifth in the women’s 200-meter NCAA championships. She has since become a leading voice in a national movement to preserve women’s sports for women.
“I’m here today to celebrate the tremendous progress in saving women’s sports and reclaiming our language,” Gaines said.
The new law applies to both K–12 and postsecondary public education institutions. It mandates that students compete on sports teams according to their sex, defined in the bill as whether a person “naturally has, had, will, or would have” male or female reproductive systems.
Under the law, girls will be allowed to participate on boys’ teams only if no equivalent girls’ team exists, such as in football. Private schools must adopt the same policy if they compete against public institutions.
“We are protecting all young women in sports,” Pillen said at a press conference that followed the ceremony. “It is not biologically apt for a young boy that says, ‘I’m a trans,’ and becomes a woman to compete in sports. It’s just not fair. It’s not right. It’s not common sense.”
The law builds on Pillen’s executive order last year establishing a “Women’s Bill of Rights,” which laid out a legal definition of male and female based on biological sex and detailed differences between the sexes.
By Bill Pan
