Nebraska on track to add gender-based school sports requirements to state Constitution

Voters appeared to agree to cement sex-separate school sports requirements into the Nebraska Constitution with Tuesday’s approval of the Fairness for Girls ballot measure.

Initiative Measure 442 had 318,439 yes votes to 160,626 no votes, as of 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, with 69% of the vote counted. The proposal would make permanent part of a 2025 state law requiring public K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and any private schools or colleges in the state playing against those schools, to designate sports and teams as male, female or coed. Male students couldn’t play on female-only teams.

The ballot measure would not define “sex” in the constitution. State law defines sex as whether someone “naturally has, had, will or would have, but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption, the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports and utilizes” either eggs (female) or sperm (male) for fertilization.

The measure faced multiple court challenges based on critics arguing the ballot language was too broad. The court battle led up to the Nebraska Supreme Court, which upheld the ballot measure’s validity in an October ruling.

Julie Slama, former state senator and sponsor of the Fairness for Girls campaign, started the night feeling optimistic, as she said she had heard consistent support for the initiative while she traveled across the state.

Slama described the measure as a “commonsense” issue that bypassed partisan lines. For an election that favored Democrats nationwide, the fact that the initiative passed by a wide margin indicated that Democrat voters supported the measure alongside Republicans, Slama said.

“Nebraskans are sick and tired of watching politicians in the Capitol turn things into a political football,” Slama said. “Opportunities for our daughters and granddaughters should never be a political football.”