A Nebraska bill to ban transgender students from the bathrooms and sports of their choice fails
A Nebraska bill to ban transgender students from the bathrooms and sports of their choice fails
Protesters hold signs outside the doors of the legislative chamber in the Nebraska State Capitol in response to a bill that would have restricted students to bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams that correspond with the gender they were assigned at birth, on Friday, April 5, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. The bill failed to advance Friday. (AP Photo/Margery Beck)
Nebraska state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, right, speaks on the floor of the Legislature against a bill to restrict transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams as the bill’s author, Sen. Kathleen Kauth, left, takes notes Friday, April 5, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. The bill failed to advance on Friday. (AP Photo/Margery Beck)
FILE - State Sen. Kathleen Kauth, of Omaha, speaks during the final reading of LB574, which limits gender-affirming care for trans youth, Friday, May 19, 2023, in Lincoln, Neb. A bill to limit transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams has been advanced out of committee with just days to go until the end of the session. Speaker of the Legislature Sen. John Arch announced late Thursday, April 4, 2024, that Kauth’s bill would be debated the next day for no more than four hours. (Justin Wan/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)
FILE - Nebraska state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh speaks to reporters, Thursday, March 18, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. A bill to limit transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams has been advanced out of committee with just days to go until the end of the session. Cavanaugh says she will filibuster bills not yet passed if Omaha Sen. Kathleen Kauth’s bathroom and sports bill advances. Speaker of the Legislature Sen. John Arch announced late Thursday, April 4, 2024, that the bill would be debated the next day for no more than four hours. (AP Photo/Margery Beck, File)
FILE - Speaker of the House John Arch crosses his arms as a point of order is called during a final reading on LB574, the Let Them Grow Act, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at the State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. A bill to limit transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams has been advanced out of committee with just days to go until the end of the session. Arch announced late Thursday, April 4, 2024, that the bill would be debated the next day for no more than four hours. (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)
Protesters hold signs outside the doors of the legislative chamber in the Nebraska State Capitol in response to a bill that would have restricted students to bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams that correspond with the gender they were assigned at birth, on Friday, April 5, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. The bill failed to advance Friday. (AP Photo/Margery Beck)
Protesters hold signs outside the doors of the legislative chamber in the Nebraska State Capitol in response to a bill that would have restricted students to bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams that correspond with the gender they were assigned at birth, on Friday, April 5, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. The bill failed to advance Friday. (AP Photo/Margery Beck)
Nebraska state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, right, speaks on the floor of the Legislature against a bill to restrict transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams as the bill’s author, Sen. Kathleen Kauth, left, takes notes Friday, April 5, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. The bill failed to advance on Friday. (AP Photo/Margery Beck)
Nebraska state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, right, speaks on the floor of the Legislature against a bill to restrict transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams as the bill’s author, Sen. Kathleen Kauth, left, takes notes Friday, April 5, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. The bill failed to advance on Friday. (AP Photo/Margery Beck)
FILE - State Sen. Kathleen Kauth, of Omaha, speaks during the final reading of LB574, which limits gender-affirming care for trans youth, Friday, May 19, 2023, in Lincoln, Neb. A bill to limit transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams has been advanced out of committee with just days to go until the end of the session. Speaker of the Legislature Sen. John Arch announced late Thursday, April 4, 2024, that Kauth’s bill would be debated the next day for no more than four hours. (Justin Wan/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)
FILE - State Sen. Kathleen Kauth, of Omaha, speaks during the final reading of LB574, which limits gender-affirming care for trans youth, Friday, May 19, 2023, in Lincoln, Neb. A bill to limit transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams has been advanced out of committee with just days to go until the end of the session. Speaker of the Legislature Sen. John Arch announced late Thursday, April 4, 2024, that Kauth’s bill would be debated the next day for no more than four hours. (Justin Wan/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)
FILE - Nebraska state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh speaks to reporters, Thursday, March 18, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. A bill to limit transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams has been advanced out of committee with just days to go until the end of the session. Cavanaugh says she will filibuster bills not yet passed if Omaha Sen. Kathleen Kauth’s bathroom and sports bill advances. Speaker of the Legislature Sen. John Arch announced late Thursday, April 4, 2024, that the bill would be debated the next day for no more than four hours. (AP Photo/Margery Beck, File)
FILE - Nebraska state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh speaks to reporters, Thursday, March 18, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. A bill to limit transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams has been advanced out of committee with just days to go until the end of the session. Cavanaugh says she will filibuster bills not yet passed if Omaha Sen. Kathleen Kauth’s bathroom and sports bill advances. Speaker of the Legislature Sen. John Arch announced late Thursday, April 4, 2024, that the bill would be debated the next day for no more than four hours. (AP Photo/Margery Beck, File)
FILE - Speaker of the House John Arch crosses his arms as a point of order is called during a final reading on LB574, the Let Them Grow Act, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at the State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. A bill to limit transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams has been advanced out of committee with just days to go until the end of the session. Arch announced late Thursday, April 4, 2024, that the bill would be debated the next day for no more than four hours. (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)
FILE - Speaker of the House John Arch crosses his arms as a point of order is called during a final reading on LB574, the Let Them Grow Act, Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at the State Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. A bill to limit transgender students’ access to bathrooms and sports teams has been advanced out of committee with just days to go until the end of the session. Arch announced late Thursday, April 4, 2024, that the bill would be debated the next day for no more than four hours. (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A bill that that would bar transgender students from school bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams that correspond with their gender identity failed Friday to get enough votes to advance in heavily conservative Nebraska.
Legislative Bill 575, dubbed the Sports and Spaces Act by its author Sen. Kathleen Kauth, would have restricted students to teams and facilities for the gender they were assigned at birth. An amended version would have gone a step further by barring students taking male hormones from girls’ teams, even if they were assigned female at birth, effectively excluding transgender males from all sports competition.
The bill needed 33 votes to end a filibuster and failed by a margin of 31 to 15, eliciting a cheer from protesters outside the chamber. Sens. Tom Brandt and Merv Riepe, who initially cosponsored the bill and had been expected to support it, abstained.
With only four days left in the legislative session, the bill is dead for the year.
Its sudden re-emergence this session temporarily threw the Legislature into turmoil. It had been stalled for more than a year before it was suddenly voted out of committee Thursday and scheduled for debate Friday.
Kauth touted the measure as protecting women’s sports, saying that allowing transgender women to play on women’s teams creates “a significant barrier for female athletes to compete in sports.”
She said there is “a significant sports performance gap between the sexes,” and “this bill protects sex inequity.”
The debate turned contentious early, with Omaha Sen. Megan Hunt calling out Kauth by name.
“This is not about protecting women,” said Hunt, who has been open about being bisexual. “It’s about the danger and the power of the imagination of a bigot, Sen. Kauth, and those who would support a bill like this.”
After another senator complained, she was asked by the Legislature’s presiding officer to refrain from casting aspersions on fellow lawmakers. That prompted Hunt to invite her colleagues to censure her.
“Do you know how hard it is to be a queer kid?” she asked. “You’re getting bullied. You’re getting beat up sometimes. And bills like LB575 just sanction that.”
Many Republican officials have sought to limit the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans in recent years, including with policies like the sporting and bathroom restrictions contained in the Nebraska bill. The national push by conservatives has come as more younger people are identifying as LGBTQ+.
At least 24 states have laws barring transgender women and girls from competing in certain women’s or girls sports competitions, including five of the six states that border Nebraska: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota and Wyoming.
Eleven states including Iowa and Kansas have adopted laws barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s bathrooms at public schools, and in some cases other government facilities.
The failure of Nebraska’s bill came as a surprise, given the dominance of Republicans over state government and the passage last year of its companion bill, also by Kauth, which banned gender-affirming surgery for anyone under 19 and greatly restricted gender-affirming medications and hormones for minors.
That measure passed after a 12-week abortion ban was attached to it, and it was signed by the governor. A lawsuit challenging the hybrid law is currently winding through the courts.
In Nebraska it takes a supermajority of 33 of the Legislature’s 49 members to end debate on a filibustered bill. The Legislature is officially nonpartisan, but lawmakers self-identify as Republican, Democrat or independent and tend to vote along party lines. Republicans hold 33 seats.
Sens. Brandt and Riepe, both Republicans, expressed doubt during debate Friday that a measure to restrict access to bathrooms and sports for transgender students was necessary. Brandt noted that the state’s high school athletics association already has a policy governing competition by transgender students.
Riepe said he had a change of heart after getting to know families with transgender members in his district. The bill, he said, was seeking to fix “a problem that does not exist.”