LINCOLN — State lawmakers on Friday fell two votes short of advancing a proposal to define K-12 school restrooms and sports teams as male or female based on a student's sex at birth.
Legislative Bill 575The Sports Spaces Act, introduced by state Sen. Kathleen Kaus of Omaha, died. 31-15This comes after two conservative legislators who originally signed the bill when it was introduced last year, state Sen. Tom Blunt of Plymouth and state Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston, did not vote in favor of the bill. . This was two votes short of the 33 votes needed to end debate on the bill.
Mr. Riepe said until the end that his vote would be a “mystery” and criticized Friday's last-minute efforts on a bill that had been brought to the floor the day before, while Mr. Blunt said he was unsure how the bill's policies would be implemented and how payments would be made. I doubted whether it would be possible. for.
Next steps for the bill
With its defeat on Friday, the bill is effectively dead for this year. La Vista Chairman John Arch said yes. Not enough time to compile billsthis could have been the next step to give LB 575 another chance with another bill next week.
Kaut said Friday's vote wasn't a “terrible surprise,” but he expected Blunt and Riepe to support it. An internal vote tally showed 32 senators supporting it and one “leaning.”
Kaut said the measure would be reinstated in 2025. He said he was ready to address other senators' concerns. The proposal could include restrictions on college athletics. As she pointed out last August maybe next.
Mr. Kaus echoed Gov. Jim Pillen's “audacity to go big.”women's bill of rights”
“I'm going to try again next year,” Kaus told reporters after the vote.
“Government’s hard-line measures”
Mr. Riepe was one of the first to suggest flaws in the bill last year as it passed through its next procedural steps. remove his name from the bill. At the time, he said he had alerted Kaut to his dissatisfaction with the State Board of Education, which has not been proactive about addressing the issue.
Sen. Ralston said he met with several transgender students and their families and was impressed by the love and care they received. Riepe said they were not looking for attention or consideration for “the lives they have been given in this very complex world.”
“I am grateful for God's creation and the strength of my family and friends who love my transgender students and walk with them every day through every challenge without government coercion,” Lipe said Friday.
Kaus said her bill aims to protect women's sports and protect the dignity and privacy of all school-age children in their most intimate settings. Without the bill, she said, “women would lose” and would be stripped of not only their trophies but also their scholarships. They also miss out on lessons learned from the sport that can prepare them for careers later in life, she says.
“Women and girls will begin to refuse to participate in sports, knowing that the odds are stacked against them,” Kaus said.
State Sen. Dave Mirman of Glenville, chairman of the education committee, said the Legislature needs to recognize physical differences between men and women, including in sports records maintained by the Nebraska School Activities Association.
Policies already in place
The Nebraska School Activities Association has already Gender participation policyIt has been in effect since January 2016. He has less than 10 students who have applied and been approved to play on a team for his desired sport.
Lipe distributed the NSAA policy to all members of Congress Thursday night.
“The NSAA has provided robust oversight and guidance,” Riepe said, noting that it allows superintendents to work one-on-one with families “with equity, safety and respect for all.” .
State Sen. Tom Blunt of Plymouth said he hopes Friday is the last time he has to talk about LB575, calling Nebraska a “national leader” in NSAA policy, which is already in place. He said it was an “excellent document” for the state.
State Sen. Lynn Walz, D-Fremont, suggested that lawmakers enact these regulations into law.
Kaus and state Sen. Teresa Eibach of Sumner expressed concern about the NSAA policy because it allows member schools to adopt their own policies. Her two districts in Nebraska— kearney and norfolk — then adopted a policy similar to last year's LB 575.
Mr Kaus said the policy also advocated the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones by children, leading to an outright ban last year. The amended bill, LB 574, restricted how youth can obtain these medications.
Mr. Riepe also said that the State Board of Education, fearing the legal repercussions of attempting to establish such a policy, delegated its authority to the Legislature, “avoiding leadership responsibility and shifting fiscal responsibility to the Legislature.” They argued that they chose to “put the burden on state taxpayers.”
“It certainly doesn't suit me in terms of courage,” he said. “We're creating a problem that doesn't exist.”
Kaus said a state board is not an option, pointing to previous policy. A conservative approach to library books Last month was not enough. In 2023, she said the board “doesn't have the teeth for that.”
Congress doesn't have time
Speaker Arch reiterated Friday morning that the Legislature is running out of time, with four days remaining in the legislative session Friday.
Lippe criticized lawmakers for wasting so much time on LB 575, saying local control is only important for school boards until issues such as: Limit library books sports teams, restrooms, etc. Brandt and Riepe opposed the library measure last month.
Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Omaha said there are probably local committees that could spend their time on those issues instead of state lawmakers who should be spending their time on property taxes and statewide revenue measures.
“Can't we spend the time and intellectual labor necessary on tax planning to get this problem right?” DeBoer said.
State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, who spent much of Friday fielding questions about the legislative history of Kaus' bill, said women don't need Congress' protection.
“We're not waiting for a man on a white horse or a prince on a horse to come and save us,” Brad said, adding that women aren't losing, they're winning. Ta.
aggressive law
State Sen. Brian Hardin of Gering said that, to his knowledge, the problems identified in LB 575 are not an issue in his western Nebraska district, “but closing the gates after the cows have left is not an issue. No,” he said.
“I don't hit the brakes until I hit the car in front of me, and I don't apply sunscreen after getting burned,” he says.
State Sen. Barry DeCay of Niobrara, who has overseen K-12 sports for 40 years, said he does not expect the state Board of Education to address the issue and that no action will result in He said schools would fall into a “very strange gray area” that would vary from school to school. We have different policies regarding sports and toilets.
He said this could cause “considerable confusion” and lead to “a major national controversy”.
DeKay said that to his knowledge, he has never officiated a game involving a transgender athlete.
“I'm not worried about the past 40 years,” he told the Examiner after the debate. “I'm worried about what will happen to my grandchildren in the next 20 years.”
“Put the genie back in the bottle.”
State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln also noted the “shaky legal footing” on which LB 575 rests, even after Tuesday. advisory opinion From Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers. The Attorney General stated his opinion that the proposed bill passes a “constitutional convention.”
The school board's amendment passed LB 575 on a 5-3 vote, adding a new restriction that prohibits transgender boys from playing any sports if they are taking cross-sex hormones.
This amendment would add the word “transgender” to the bill, overturning Hilgers' opinion that “transgender students cannot be treated as special because it does not mention gender identity.” Become. Kaus listened to concerns raised in committee and offered to remove the section on Friday.
“But that's not trying to solve the problem in good faith,” Dungan said. “It's like trying to put the genie back in the bottle or trying to put toothpaste back in the tube, because the intent of this bill is clear: The intent of this bill is to discriminate against transgender youth. .”
Chromosomes and coercion
LB 575 defines “male” and “female” based on a student’s chromosomes. Several senators questioned how it would be feasible for schools to apply the policy.
The proposal would have left implementation to each of Nebraska's 244 school districts.
“How do you judge when you're looking at a child?” Riepe asked. “Is it like a shirt size? Are they an ‘X’ and a double ‘X’ or a triple ‘X’ and what are those?”
State Sen. Jen Day of Omaha, who said she has played sports since childhood, including against men, echoed concerns that no one had ever asked for her or her child's chromosomes.
“When my children were born, there was no one to come into the delivery room and test them to see what chromosomes they had,” Day said. “How do you know?”
Kaus told the Nebraska Examiner Thursday that a doctor's certification, such as a student's birth certificate or an annual physical exam, could meet the bill's requirements.
Riepe said Thursday night that she had signed many birth certificates, but none of them contained information about her chromosomes.
Blunt questioned who would pay for student chromosome testing and extra bathrooms and lockers, requiring some of the district's smallest schools, which are “very cash-strapped,” to do so without funding. I asked if that would be the case.
He also asked how LB 575 would apply to polysomal or intersex children, who are not transgender but can be born with multiple sexual characteristics. They may not even know that part of their identity — their parents may never have told them, Brandt added.
Brandt asked fathers of young daughters or mothers of young sons how they could help their children go to the bathroom at school events without breaking the law.
“This bill is not well thought out to address this issue,” Blunt said.
