Nevada governor backs ‘Protect Girls’ Sports’ initiative petition targeting trans athletes

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo said Wednesday he will lead a ballot initiative petition to prevent transgender athletes from playing in leagues of their gender identity.

Lombardo, a first-term Republican running for re-election this year, said the “Protect Girls’ Sports” initiative is intended to safeguard the integrity and fairness of female athletics, according to a news release.

“We are taking thoughtful steps to ensure girls’ sports are fair and athletes are safe,” the governor, who will serve as the political action committee’s honorary chair, said in a news release. “It’s important that female athletes have the opportunity to succeed in their athletic field. By bringing together a diverse coalition now, we can establish clear and fair standards that protect generations of female athletes to come.”

Critics say Lombardo’s move is a political attempt to motivate his base in advance of his re-election campaign. They say the measure is likely to face stiff legal challenges going forward.

Amending the Equal Rights Amendment

Nevadans voted to establish an Equal Rights Amendment in 2022, stating that a person’s rights cannot be denied by the state based on race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin. The initiative proposes amending the Nevada Constitution and the Equal Rights Amendment to include language about protecting fairness and integrity in girls’ athletics, according to the release.

The proposal would require any league or sport that receives public funds to comply with a rule saying that players must only play in a league that matches their sex at birth or in co-ed leagues if they are available, PAC officials said.

According to the initiative petition’s language, athletes born male would not be permitted to participate in athletic teams or sports designated for women or girls. Athletes born female would be allowed to participate in male sports or teams if there is no corresponding team for women. It would allow men and women regardless of sex at birth to participate in co-ed or mixed sex leagues and sports.

In April, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, which governs high school sports in the state, modified its policy on transgender athletes to require they compete as the gender on their birth certificates. The new policy falls in line with a federal executive order by President Donald Trump, and Lombardo applauded the change at the time.

It’s unclear how many transgender athletes compete in scholastic or collegiate competitions in Nevada. Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony, who has led much of the public politicking on the subject in the state, said in an interview last year that he didn’t know how many transgender athletes were playing in the state.

The NIAA did not respond to a request for comment about the number of trans athletes participating in state athletics by publication time.

A May 2025 Gallup poll found that more than two-thirds of Americans support policies that would keep transgender athletes from playing on teams that match their gender identity. Between 2021 and the time of the report, Democrats’ and independents’ levels of support declined by 10 percentage points, according to the polling firm.

Erica Neely, a Republican running for Nevada Assembly and a leader of the initiative petition, said in a statement that the distinctions were important to herself for her daughters.

“This proposed amendment protects equal rights for everyone, while making sure girls’ teams stay just for girls, so our daughters can compete safely and fairly,” Neely said. “There are still co-ed options. For me, this isn’t political, it’s about protecting opportunities for our daughters.”

Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said he expects the proposed constitutional amendment would face legal challenges and that the NIAA rule may also face a challenge this year.

“If the NIAA policy was lawful, then why would they need to attempt to modify the Constitution?” Haseebullah said.

Election implications

Haseebullah said he sees the ballot initiative petition as an attempt to drive Republican voter turnout in the 2026 elections.

“As so many people are struggling all across the state on a variety of issues, why is our governor focused on doing this?” he said. “It’s quite clear that politics determines how the governor moves.”

Aaron Ford, the Democratic front-runner for governor and the state’s attorney general, also said he believed the initiative was meant to drive voter turnout this fall, and that he would continue defending the constitutional rights of Nevadans.

“I personally do not support trans athletes competing in sports opposite their gender assigned at birth,” he said in a statement. “But let’s be clear, Lombardo doesn’t care about this issue; he’s only using it as a political ploy to drum up support for his flailing re-election campaign, all the while increasing discrimination against trans-Nevadans. My faith teaches me that every person is a child of God and deserves to be treated with humanity, dignity, and respect.”

Sondra Cosgrove, a history professor at College of Southern Nevada, said ballot initiative petitions were created more than 100 years ago to give power directly to voters and circumvent corrupt parties during the Gilded Age.

Nowadays, she said, parties and politicians are more likely than grassroots organizations to lead ballot initiatives because they are required to get physical signatures observed by the petition’s circulators, and because of segmented signature quotas. At least 37,197 of the minimum 148,788 signatures must come from each of the four congressional districts.

“Think about last election cycle — Democrats had their abortion question and the Republicans had their voter ID question,” she said, referring to two 2024 initiatives proposing to establish voter ID requirements and enshrine abortion protections in the Constitution. Both must pass in 2026 to become law. “They do that turn out their base.”

The petition must receive 10 percent of the last general election’s voters to be considered in the 2026 general election ballot. If it succeeds, it must be passed again in 2028 and would become part of the Constitution upon passage.

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.