LINCOLN (LifeSiteNews) — Nebraska Republican Gov. Jim Pillen signed a new law on Wednesday morning protecting female students from having to compete against males in sex-specific athletic programs.
The Stand With Women Act states that “a team or sport designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to a male student” in interscholastic athletic programs sponsored by or competing with public schools; while “a team or sport designated for males, men, or boys shall not be open to a female student unless there is no female team offered or available for such sport for such female student.”
Further, a “government entity, licensing or accrediting organization, or athletic association shall not entertain a complaint, open an investigation, or take any other adverse action against a public or private school or a public or private postsecondary educational institution for maintaining any separate interscholastic athletic team or sport for female students.”
“LB89 is about protecting women in their athletics, protecting them in their private areas like their bathrooms, locker rooms, making sure that their opportunities remain their opportunities so for athletic competitions or even things like grants set aside for women should be for women,” said the bill’s lead sponsor, Republican state Sen. Kathleen Kauth, NTV reports.
The Stand With Women Act, LB89, just advanced to my desk. It achieves a key goal: protecting girls and women’s sports. It’s just common sense that girls shouldn’t have to compete against biological boys. This legislative win will lead to many more victories for Nebraska’s female… pic.twitter.com/ZNs1tbWZnh
— Governor Jim Pillen (@TeamPillen) May 29, 2025
Allowing gender-confused individuals to compete in opposite-sex sports is promoted by leftists as a matter of “inclusivity,” but critics note that indulging “transgender” athletes undermines the original rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place, thereby depriving female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities.
There have been numerous high-profile examples in recent years of men winning women’s competitions, and research affirms that physiology gives males distinct athletic advantages that cannot be negated by hormone suppression.
In a 2019 paper published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, New Zealand researchers found that “healthy young men [do] not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks,” and “indirect effects of testosterone” on factors such as bone structure, lung volume, and heart size “will not be altered by hormone [use];” therefore, “the advantage to [gender-confused men] afforded by the [International Olympic Committee] guidelines is an intolerable unfairness.”
Critics also warn that forcing girls to share intimate facilities such as bathrooms, showers, or changing areas with members of the opposite sex violates their privacy rights, subjects them to needless emotional stress, and gives male predators a viable pretext to enter female bathrooms or lockers by simply claiming transgender status.
Even the left-wing United Nations has acknowledged as much, via an October 2024 report by Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem, which found that more than 600 female athletes around the world have lost more than 890 medals to men in 29 sports as of March 2024. “To avoid the loss of a fair opportunity, males must not compete in the female categories of sport,” the report concluded.
In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring school athletic programs to limit female-specific teams to real females in order to continue receiving Title IX funds.
