For opposing biological males in girls sports, Nevada lieutenant governor’s bills killed

A source who worked for Anthony’s office said Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas, told Anthony that his bills would die if he didn’t back off his position that biological males should be barred from women’s sports.

One of the bills would have reauthorized the Nevada Office of Small Business Advocacy, which is under the lieutenant governor’s office. The bill’s death meant the office’s workers lost their jobs.

“The lieutenant governor had three bills by statute that he’s allowed to submit, and all three of his bills died, although there was one bill that we proposed and it was passed under a different name,” Garrett Tamagni, Anthony’s legislative director, told The Center Square.

Tamagni said the bills were killed because of Anthony’s support for the Protect Women’s Sports campaign.

“Biological males do not belong in women’s sports,” Anthony said in a March 14 Facebook post.

Legislative records show Anthony’s bills were assigned to committees that never discussed them. The legislation covered seemingly non-controversial topics such as agricultural tourism, small business advocacy and recess for elementary school students. All of them were introduced in February but died due to legislative inaction one month after the lieutenant governor’s Facebook post and three months after he started the Task Force to Protect Women’s Sports.

Approximately half the states have acted in recent years to prevent transgender athletes who are biological males from competing in girls and women’s sports. Anthony would like Nevada to join the list. He and others argue that biological males’ participation in women’s sports is unfair and unsafe, as well as a violation of a female athletes’ Title IX rights.

“They weren’t going to say outright, that they refused to hear any of our bills because of the Protect Women’s Sports issue, but that was blatantly what it was,” Tamagni said about legislative Democrats.

The Center Square contacted Cannizzaro and other Democratic leaders to comment on Tamagni’s allegation, but did not get a response.

Dead bills

Anthony’s bills were Senate Bill 5, Senate Bill 55 and Assembly Bill 53.

SB5 sought to reauthorize the Office for Small Business Advocacy.

Created in 2021, OSBA was set to expire on June 30, 2025. SB5 would have removed the expiration date and made OSBA a permanent part of state government while continuing to provide information to small businesses and the public, coordinate with state agencies and local governments on business matters, and do things such as assist in complaints about small businesses. SB5 was introduced Feb. 3, assigned to the Senate Government Affairs Committee and died on April 12.

The Legislature’s failure to consider SB5 resulted in OSBA employees being laid off.

SB55 would have started a Nevada agriculture tourism program and provided $50,000 for expenses such as marketing. The bill also would have provided $50,000 for grants to agriculture tourism businesses.

The third bill was AB53, a measure to require 20 minutes of outdoor recess for kids in grades K-5. For middle school to high school students, county school boards or charter school boards could approve their own outdoor education or recreation elective credit materials. These could have been local activities, such as joining a hiking or fishing club, working at a state park for cleanup or attending Department of Wildlife classes.

“Anything like that, we really left it up to the school boards,” Tamagni said. “That bill was passed under the name AB501, which was presented by the speaker of the Assembly and the majority (leader) of the Assembly, Speaker Steve Yeager and Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, and they passed it literally word for word minus the recess.”

SB55 and AB53 were also introduced in February, to the Senate Revenue and Economic Development and Assembly Education committees, respectively. Both died April 12.

When asked again whether Democrats had objections to Anthony’s opposition to biological males competing in female sports, Tamagni said yes, adding that the Lieutenant Governor’s Office was “very strong” on the Protect Women’s Sports issue during the session that ended in early June.

“We brought lots of young, female athletes throughout the building at one point, and they passed out letters to all the legislators telling them of their experience playing in sports and why they don’t think that boys should be playing in their sports, and these were girls aged middle and high school,” Tamagni said. “Democrats were pissed, to put it lightly.”

In April, during the legislative session, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association changed its policy and began requiring a physician’s note confirming the birth sex of an athlete. This resulted from the lieutenant governor’s efforts and the task force he helped form in January.

“Democrats were not happy about that at all,” Tamagni said.

Lombardo shares position

Anthony shares the same position on biological males in women’s sports as Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo. But Lombardo saw success with one of his bills, the Nevada Accountability in Education Act, which focused on accountability for schools and educational opportunities. It was merged into a larger bill, Senate Bill 460, by Cannizzaro. SB460 was passed by the Legislature with bipartisan support in June and signed into law by Lombardo.

Sen. Carrie Ann Buck, R-Henderson, is a member of the lieutenant governor’s task force on women’s sports. Buck told The Center Square that her “goal has always been to promote fairness and opportunity” for Nevada’s female athletes.

“Nevadans are overwhelmingly on the side of common sense and know that men do not belong in women’s sports,” Buck said. “Democrats may block our bills, but they can’t block the truth or silence my fight to protect women, girls and the integrity of competition.”

Democrats can come back in the 2027 session and pass a measure that overrides the new NIAA policy. By 2027, the makeup of the NIAA could change, or members could reconsider and do away with the association’s policy change. As a result, Tamagni said, “Young female athletes are not truly protected until we have them protected in the Nevada Revised Statutes.”

Multiple phone calls and emails from The Center Square to Yeager and Jauregui were not returned. With the exception of Buck, Republican legislators and committee members did not respond to requests for comment from The Center Square.

The Center Square is a publication of the Franklin News Foundation. The nonprofit newsroom aims to help taxpayers understand what government is doing, spark investigations on harmful public policies and bring Americans facts on key issues they deserve to know.