Fairness for Girls' ballot measure approved for November vote in Nebraska

“You’re not only risking injuries to girls competing against them, but moreover girls are missing out on scholarship opportunities and medal spots,” said Julie Slama, the attorney, former state senator and leader of Fairness for Girls. Nebraska Public Media reported that Slama and fellow advocates believe Nebraskans will not only benefit from the proposed constitutional amendment but support it.

The “Fairness for Girls” ballot measure would write into Nebraska’s constitution the existing state law that already bans biological males from participating on girls’ sports teams. While that participation ban currently exists as regular state law, Slama and other supporters have argued that putting the provision into the constitution ensures a future Legislature cannot roll back those protections through simple legislation.

Organizers of the petition turned in 211,000 signatures in late June. At the time, Slama noted that the 211,000 total represented the largest number of signatures ever collected for a petition effort in state history.

A series of public hearings will be held across the state on the Fairness for Girls and Online Sports Wagering ballot measures that will go before Nebraskans this November.https://t.co/6kqu9KtJd4

— https://x.com/NebPubMediaNews/status/2106866974680563881

“We made a little bit of history today,” Slama told Nebraska Public Media News. “We’re absolutely thrilled at the work of hundreds of Nebraska volunteers and thousands of petition signers who put their names to put common-sense protections for girls sports on the ballot in November.”

A Drive Funded by Millions in Outside Money

Support for the initiative has not all been local. Campaign filings from May submitted to the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission revealed that Restore the Good Life Inc., a conservative political action committee, gave at least $3 million to support the effort. Other contributions came from the Nebraska Family Alliance, a conservative advocacy group.

Those millions have been used to pay petition gatherers. Commission records show that during March and April, Fairness for Girls gave $3 million to Vanguard Field Strategies, a Texas-based branch of GOP consulting firm Axiom Strategies that supplies paid door-knockers and petition gatherers to Republican candidates and causes.

Nebraska voters vote on ballot initiative 442 titled “Fairness for Girls”

Advocates for Transgender Youth Warn of Constitutional Harm

Out Nebraska, an advocacy group for LGBTQ people, has opposed the petition effort, saying the proposed constitutional amendment would do “real damage” to transgender kids.

“The ‘Fairness for Girls’ initiative is not a grassroots effort to protect girls’ sports. It has received the majority of its funding, more than $3 million, from a dark money nonprofit,” the organization posted in June. “It is designed to permanently embed into Nebraska’s constitution a policy that was already passed as regular law, specifically making it harder to change or challenge that law. Transgender students are not a threat to girls’ sports. They are kids who want to play. OutNebraska knows that Nebraska is for all of us. That includes every young person who wants to be part of their school community.”

The two sides disagree sharply on both the stakes and the nature of the campaign. Slama frames the issue around physical safety and competitive fairness, citing the risk of injuries to girls and the loss of scholarship opportunities and medal spots. Out Nebraska counters that the measure targets vulnerable children and locks policy into the constitution, a step it argues makes the law harder to change or challenge than the regular statute already on the books.

Fairness for Girls' ballot measure approved for November vote in Nebraska

Nebraska Supreme Court Clears the Final Obstacle for November

The Nebraska Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the language of the ballot initiative in mid-October. That ruling cleared the final obstacle for the ballot measure, setting it on the November ballot for voters to decide whether to make the ban permanent in the state constitution.

For the hundreds of volunteers and thousands of petition signers who put their names to the effort, the court’s decision means their work will now be tested at the ballot box this November. For transgender students and their advocates, the vote represents a fight to prevent a policy they say already exists as regular law from becoming entrenched at the constitutional level.