Fairness for Girls, the campaign behind an initiative to codify sports eligibility requirements based on sex in the Nebraska Constitution, submitted more than 211,000 signatures on June 30. The signature deadline is July 2.
The initiative would add a new section to Article VII of the state constitution, requiring schools to "designate each athletic team or sport as one of the following based on biological sex:" male, female, or co-ed. It would prohibit males from participating on teams designated for females. The requirements would apply to teams sponsored by public schools and to private school teams that compete against public school teams.
Last year, the state legislature passed a law requiring students participating in public K-12 or collegiate sports to compete on teams designated for their sex, which the law defines according to reproductive systems. The law also requires each student to provide the school with a document, signed by or under the authority of a doctor, confirming the student’s sex.
The signature requirement in Nebraska is equal to 10% of registered voters at the signature deadline. According to the latest voter registration report, there are 1,256,903 registered voters as of May 22. The approximate number of signatures required is 125,690 signatures. Nebraska also has a distribution requirement that requires initiative proponents to collect signatures from 5% of the registered voters in two-fifths (38) of Nebraska's 93 counties. A simple majority vote is required for voter approval. However, the number of affirmative votes cast for the measure must be greater than 35% of the total votes cast in the election.
Former State Sen. Julie Slama (R), sponsor of the initiative, said, “Girls deserve equal opportunities in their sports. Men competing in girls’ sports steal their opportunities to earn scholarships, medals, and advancement.”
The initiative is opposed by Rainbow Parents of Nebraska and Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. Rainbow Parents of Nebraska said, "Trans people make up less than 1% of our state’s population. Trans athletes are an even smaller percentage of that 1%. This does NOT protect women as they like to claim. This is another distraction and an attempt to increase conservative voter turnout."
Voters in three states — Arizona, Colorado, and Washington — will decide on ballot measures related to sports eligibility requirements based on sex in 2026. The measure in Arizona was referred to the ballot by the state legislature. It would remove the provision allowing any student, including females, to participate in any interscholastic or intramural athletic team or sport designated for males. It would also prohibit schools and athletic associations from authorizing a student, athlete, employee, or other individual from using a restroom, locker room, shower room, or other private space that is not designated for their sex and define sex as the "biological status as male or female as recorded at birth on the individual's original birth certificate."
The measures in Colorado and Washington were placed on the ballot by citizen petitions. The Colorado initiative would require all K-12 and collegiate school sports teams to be separated based on sex, unless the team is co-ed. The ballot initiative would define females as "person[s] whose biological reproductive system is organized around the production of ova," and males as "person[s] whose biological reproductive system is organized around the production of sperm."
Each school’s governing body would be required to adopt a policy implementing the measure
The Washington initiative would require school and voluntary nonprofit athletics to prohibit male students from competing with and against female students. These are the first ballot measures related to sports eligibility requirements based on sex to appear on statewide ballots. The ballot initiative would require students seeking to participate in athletic activities designated for female students to submit documentation from their healthcare provider verifying "the student’s biological sex [based on]... reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels."
Twelve initiatives were filed in Nebraska for the 2026 ballot. The average number of initiatives to qualify for the ballot in Nebraska since 2010 is between one and two.
Nebraska voters are set to decide on one statewide ballot measure to change the legislative term limit from two consecutive four-year terms to three.
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