Nebraska has become the latest state to pass an anti-trans sports ban. On Wednesday, Gov. Jim Pillen (R) signed the so-called Stand With Women Act, which requires K-12 and college students in the state to play on teams that correspond with their sex assigned at birth.

Students will now be required to present doctors’ notes confirming their sex assigned at birth before participating in sports. This is all happening despite the fact that, as reported by the Nebraska School Activities Association, only 10 out trans Nebraskans have applied to play middle and high school sports in the past seven years.

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“When you bring down trans women, it hurts all women, excluding trans people, was, is, and never will be about protecting anyone.”

“We cannot ignore that girls and women have the right to a level playing field when it comes to sports,” said Gov. Pillen during the signing ceremony.

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“Otherwise, we are denying them opportunities to compete and win, earn scholarships and develop their own athletic abilities.”

During the signing, Pillen was surrounded by lawmakers, athletes, and activists, including anti-trans crusader Riley Gaines, who said she is “so proud to have been a part of this multi-year fight for women’s rights.”

The bill passed after lawmakers removed provisions that would have also required students to use locker rooms and bathrooms based on sex assigned at birth. State Sen. Merv Riepe (R) said he’d vote against the bill if those provisions remained. The bill ultimately passed the legislature with a single filibuster-breaking vote.

As GLAAD has reported, rather than protecting cis women and girls, anti-trans sports bans often lead to harassment and baseless accusations that female athletes are trans. These bans also target a minuscule number of athletes and are ultimately attempting to tackle a problem that does not exist.

Reporting by the Associated Press in 2021 revealed that dozens of lawmakers who sponsored legislation to restrict trans athletes’ participation in school sports couldn’t cite a single example in their own state where trans athletes had caused problems. 

Even more, a recent study found that trans women actually underperform when compared to cis athletes. The study confirms that transitioning presents various physical changes, such as a lower center of mass and fat distribution, decreased muscle mass and bone density, and lower blood oxygen levels.

The Nebraska bill was introduced at the request of Pillen by state Sen. Kathleen Kauth (R), who first tried to pass an anti-trans sports ban in 2023. The bill did not advance, though, as at the time, Kauth had also proposed a gender-affirming care ban that consumed the legislative debate and ultimately passed.

Last year, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld a law banning gender-affirming care for minors as well as restricting reproductive rights. The ACLU argued to the court that the legislation violated the Nebraska Constitution’s single-subject rule, which stated that bills should not contain more than one subject as their focus.

The state is riddled with anti-LGBTQ+ laws and policies and has an extremely low equality rating of 2.25/49 by the Movement Advancement Project.

In 2023, Gov. Pillen signed an executive order establishing the so-called Women’s Bill of Rights, which legally defined sex based on what is assigned at birth.

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