After the banning of trans healthcare for minors in Nebraska, lawmakers have decided they can’t get enough, attacking transgender people’s rights to participate in sports teams that correctly correlate to their genders. 

State senator Kathleen Kauth of Omaha proposed Legislative Bill 575 earlier this year, which would categorize school locker rooms, bathrooms, and sporting teams as either male or female, requiring students to use facilities and participate in teams solely based on their sex assigned at birth. 

The Nebraska School Activities Association’s Gender Participation policy currently has trans students fill out an application before participating in the teams correctly matching their gender. 

Even this policy itself is simply flawed. Not only does it specifically target trans girls, as there are no requirements for boys, but it has so many requirements that take such a long time to complete. These requirements include testimonies and a year of hormone therapy or previously completed surgery. 

For students in high school, that care is inaccessible, especially in Nebraska, since gender care for minors is banned. This policy is written under the guise of caring about the wellbeing of students, but it’s just harmful.

Trans students shouldn’t have to go through leaps and bounds simply to play a sport. This policy tells trans students that they are different, and that they don’t belong. 

It takes trans students, specifically girls who haven’t transitioned, completely out of the equation.

Legislative Bill 575 states, “A school or any official of a school shall not retaliate against any person for reporting a violation of this section or related rules, regulations, or policies.”

The bill strips all protection of trans students away, focusing on relinquishing them of any rights to fight back on wrongful accusations. It’s centered on protecting those who feel “threatened” by a trans person’s existence.

Having this bill not only extend to locker rooms and sport teams but bathrooms as well is simply gross. 

This could prevent schools from having gender neutral bathrooms, which is often the only way for trans students to use the restroom at school and feel safe while doing so.

It also affects gendered bathrooms. Trying to figure out whether someone is or is not trans is invasive, and shouldn’t be done. 

There’s no biological test to tell whether someone is transgender or not, so where is the line?

If a student whose gender is not discernible tries to use a bathroom, they shouldn’t have to be stopped. They shouldn’t be violated just because they don’t fit what is expected of their gender. 

This doesn’t just affect trans students, it affects everyone. If someone is deemed to “look transgender,” they could be subject to some sort of examination before they’re allowed to use the restroom. 

These laws aren’t made out of interest for sports or well-being of the students; they’re made to target trans people. Laws like these shouldn’t exist, and people shouldn’t have their rights taken away simply because they exist.