After failing to pass transgender restrictions for K-12 students in 2024, Nebraska Republicans are renewing their efforts and shifting their focus to restrooms/locker-rooms in state owned buildings and college athletics.
A Friday morning press conference headlined by Governor Jim Pillen began with an unintelligible outburst from the crowd, interrupting Pillen and prompting the removal of that person(s) from the room. Pillen sternly warned that interruptions would not be tolerated. Hear the exchange below.
The legislative bill dubbed The Stand With Women Act — LB 89 — dictates the definition of “male-female” and “boy-girl” as corresponding to a persons production of sperm and ova, or colloquially, a persons biological sex or sex assigned at birth.
Under the bill, state agency buildings and all schools (public, private, denominational, or parochial) would be required to enforce this definition of gender in regards to restrooms which would need to marked for “females” or “males.”
Governor Jim Pillen
“It’s really simple, folks. Girls and women should not have to share locker rooms with boys and men, period,” Pillen said. “Protecting female only spaces is incredibly important because girls and women should have access to spaces where they are safe and secure. Free from the pressure and the presence of biological males due to the potential of harassment or assault.”
The assertion that letting transgender people use public facilities that align with their gender identity increases the risk of harassment or assault is controversial. A 2018 study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School said there is no evidence of this claim.
“From my seat, Suzanne (Pillen’s wife), I have three granddaughters. Over my dead body are they going to have to someday wake up and have men, boys in their locker room space or compete against (them),” Pillen added, referring the second portion of the effort to segregate transgender athletes to sport-teams aligned with their sex assigned at birth.
Whether such restrictions would materially impact any Nebraska Athletics programs is unclear. Anna Baeth, director of research at Athlete Ally, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ equality in sports, estimates fewer than 40 of the NCAA’s more than 500,000 athletes are known to be transgender.
“When a person becomes of age and they have the desire to become something different, from my seat, I love that person like any other Nebraskan,” Pillen followed up. “It’s incredibly important that we protect kids until they are at the age.”
State Sen. Kathleen Kauth, representing District 31 in West Omaha, is LB 89’s author and the champion of last year’s failed legislative effort.
“It is critically important that we actually make this stand,” Kauth said. “We have to be able to say that a woman is a woman and a man is a man.”
Decorated University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) athletes Jordy Bahl, a softball pitcher, and Rebekah Allick, a volleyball middle-blocker, participated in the conference and expressed their support for the legislation.
“There’s been extreme demand,” said Bahl, referring to the inclusion of transgender players. “But there has also been extreme consequences for saying no to insanity that has been pushed upon us. I believe that that is why now we have a silent majority. A large majority of Americans know how morally screwed up this whole issue is.”
The veracity of a “silent majority” of those who oppose expanded civil rights for transgender persons is mixed. A 2022 Pew Research study showed that most Americans favor protecting trans people from discrimination, but fewer support policies related to medical care for gender transitions. However, a 2023 Gallup poll found the majority of Americans believe transgender athletes should compete in sports based on their sex assigned at birth. Although, further, a University of Michigan poll from the same year indicates that consensus diminishes as the polling group is younger.
Bahl mentioned receiving vitriolic comments for her stance on this issue, and leaned on her faith while discussing the issue.
“All human beings are creations of the Lord. Everybody’s created and designed by the Father. But the difference is that I just don’t think some people have let their hearts receive the love of Jesus Christ, and that is where I feel like a big difference is,” Bahl said. “But despite whatever feelings or emotions or identity crisis one could be going through, there’s always going to be major things that decipher male and female. And both parties (republicans & democrats) should be able to see why it’s necessary to have designated areas for both and also to be able to reason with how dangerous it could be when one infiltrates the other.”
Allick began her comments saying the LGBTQ+/trans-activist community is “Just full of hate,” referring to anger directed at Gov. Pillen before and during the conference. She then reiterated the famed “gotcha” question often posed by conservative online influencers such as Matt Walsh and Charlie Kirk (who Allick said “is someone who I like to listen to”), What is a Woman?
“What’s beautiful is that God gave us the definition of a woman. It is of femininity, it is of grace, it is of beauty,” she said. “I just believe that if more of the community would just dive into what our Lord has to offer, they would find peace and an identity… the devil has a beautiful way of twisting what is the truth. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, he never questioned was God real or not? He asked him, did ‘God really say that?’ Did God really say that you were beautifully and purposely made? Did God really say you were born to be a man? Did God really say that you were born to be a woman? And yes, he did. Our God makes no mistakes.”
“Honestly, my heart just mostly breaks for the trans community because I believe a lot of them resorted to that community was because people weren’t listening when they were crying. People weren’t listening when they were asking for help and were confused. The questions is not what God condemns us for, but when we make those active decisions to defy him,” she continued.
Allick also said the separation of church and state, outlined in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, “personally really pisses me off.”
“We’re missing the whole point. Without our church, without our God, who are we? You’re telling me that I’m just a speck of dust in this entire universe? You’re telling me that my combustion in my mother’s uterus was an accident? I do not believe in such thing,” she said.
During the question-answer period, Sen. Kauth told reporters that the new law, if passed, would be internally enforced by agencies.
It would take 33 votes in the Nebraska Unicameral to overcome a filibuster in order to advance this bill. State Republicans have exactly 33 seats in the technically non-partisan political body. Kauth said “I don’t think we’re quite there yet,” indicating there may be a few holdouts. Last year, Senators Tom Brandt and Merv Riepe, both republicans, voted “present not voting” effectively defeating the similar legislation.
“We failed last year, but that just means we bring the next step this year… I think we will get there,” Kauth said.
In response to the conference, Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb issued the following statement:
“While Nebraskans are worried about tax relief and kitchen table issues, Governor Pillen and his GOP allies are focused on waging culture wars that only seek to divide us, not bring Nebraskans together. The people of our state deserve elected officials who strive to make this state better for all Nebraskans, not just a select few. The Nebraska Democratic Party reaffirms its commitment to standing alongside those who are targeted by the Republican’s hateful rhetoric and exclusionary policies. It’s time to deliver for the people of Nebraska instead of waging divisive culture wars.”
“We all deserve the freedom to live safely as who we are, and that includes transgender Nebraskans,” ACLU of Nebraska Policy Director Scout Richters said. “It is vital that people look past the branding to understand LB 89’s actual impact of functionally erasing trans people under state law and mandating government discrimination against them. This bill is more than a continuation of the recent legislative attacks on our LGBTQ+ friends, family members and neighbors — it is a sharp escalation.”
The full bill can be read below.