One of three state ballot initiatives to ban transgender student-athletes from girls’ sports moved a step closer to final approval on Wednesday, when a Nevada judge dismissed a case challenging a proposed referendum in the state.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R), who’s up for reelection in 2026, is the public face of the initiative. The measure would require school sports to be categorized as male, female, or coeducational, and base student-athlete participation on sex assigned at birth.

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In a recording obtained by The Nevada Independent last month, Lombardo admitted the transphobic ballot measure is part of his “game plan” to increase right-wing voter turnout and secure his re-election bid.

Polling shows Lombardo in a dead heat with his likely Democratic challenger, State Attorney General Aaron Ford.

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The governor called the transphobic sports ban a “vote-getter”

The initiative is a “wedge” issue to entice voters, Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, told The Independent.

“It’s essentially an attempt to distract,” Fields Figueredo said. “These are bad faith attempts to drive potential supporters to the polls at the expense and well-being and belonging of trans students.”

Neither the measure’s inclusion on the 2026 ballot or in the state constitution is assured, however.

While the judge struck down the challenge to the initiative, he did order the measure’s sponsors to include new language in the description provided to potential signers that explicitly states passage of the ballot measure would require a specific exemption from the state’s Equal Rights Amendment: That is, it the anti-discrimination law would no longer apply to trans people.

In 2022, Nevada voters approved adding language to the state constitution prohibiting discrimination based on gender and other characteristics. 

The revised description could influence the success of the campaign to get the initiative on the ballot by June 4; to get it on the ballot, nearly 150,000 signatures divided across four Congressional Districts will be required. Additionally, the same ballot initiative will need to pass twice in successive Nevada general elections to actually be added to the state constitution.

Before that, the measure will also likely face yet another challenge in Nevada’s Supreme Court.

An anti-trans sports ban will be on Washington’s ballot

One of the three proposed voter initiatives banning trans student-athletes has been assured a place on the Washington State ballot this November.

In Washington, a right-wing political action committee announced in January that it had collected enough signatures to put a trans sports ban initiative on the general election ballot. That measure would require regular genital exams for student-athletes.

In Maine, a collection of “girl dads” who want to “protect the dignity, opportunity, and privacy of our daughters” is awaiting certification of signatures for a ballot initiative that would ban trans student-athletes from girls’ sports.

“This will harmonize the Maine Human Rights Act with Federal Title IX, resulting in requirements and protections for individuals with biologically-verifiable differences in sex development,” claimed the dads promoting their Protect Girls’ Sports ban.

Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, Executive Director of Advocates for Trans Equality, has written that anti-trans sports bans aren’t about protecting women and girls in sports.

“It does nothing to address the real issues facing women and girls in athletics, such as unequal access to funding and facilities, abuse by coaches, physicians, and other trusted adults, and the unconscionable gender pay gap in professional sports,” Heng-Lehtinen wrote, adding that such bans are just part of a larger Republican campaign to “erase transgender people from public life.”

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