Nebraska voters have approved of ballot Measure 442, the so-called “Fairness for Girls initiative, The Daily Nebraskan reported, with 67% of voters supporting the initiative as of midnight local time.
The measure will write into the state constitution a 2025 law, sponsored by state Sen. Kathleen Kauth (R), that already requires public K-12 and college athletes to play on teams matching their sex at birth. The measure defines one’s sex at birth as having a reproductive system that “does or at some point will produce, transport, and utilize” either eggs ( for a woman or girl) or sperm (for a man or boy).
The measure applies to all athletic teams or sports sponsored by public schools, postsecondary educational institutions, private schools, or educational institutions that compete against public schools. Opponents of the measure accused its creators of using deliberately misleading language to gain voter support for the measure, though the state Supreme Court disagreed.
Interestingly, the state Supreme Court recently heard arguments challenging the measure’s legality. Opponents say that the ballot measure’s sponsors failed to “adequately inform the public of what they are trying to accomplish” when collecting signatures for the effort.
The measure’s ballot language says, “The object of this petition is to amend the Nebraska Constitution to establish constitutional protections for sex-separate athletics to ensure equal access to athletic opportunities for females.”
The plaintiff’s lawsuit said the language failed to properly describe the “legal effect of the filing of the petition and the object sought to be secured by submitting the measure to the voters.” The language “omits major provisions contained in the Initiative’s text and does not accurately reflect the text of the Initiative,” which could lead voters to support it without understanding its consequences, the plaintiff claimed.
More specifically, the plaintiff’s lawsuit noted that the ballot language fails to inform voters that the amendment applies to all public and private schools from childhood to adulthood, and:
- imposes requirements based on biological sex;
- prohibits male students from participating in sports and teams designated for female students;
- applies to recreational intramural sports, as well as interscholastic and intercollegiate sports; and
- does not actually guarantee equal access to athletic opportunities.
In the state Supreme Court’s recent ruling, the justices wrote that the state ballot language law “does not require an initiative’s object statement to set forth every consequence that would result from the initiative measure should it be adopted by voters.”
Daniel Villarreal is a longtime, award-winning journalist and editor who has written for NBC News, Newsweek, Vox, Slate, Vice News, The Seattle Stranger, The Dallas Voice and numerous other LGBTQ+ publications. He has spoken at SXSW, Creating Change, Netroots Nation, GaymerX, and is a graduate of GLAAD’s Voices of Color program and of the Poynter Institute’s 2024 Power of Diverse Voices seminar. He is also the founder of QueerBomb Dallas, an annual non-corporate Pride event; CinéWilde, the nation’s longest running monthly LGBTQ film series. He is available for interviews and educational talks.