Gov. Joe Lombardo announced last week that he would push for legislation in the upcoming session to limit the participation of transgender athletes in state-funded sports after a ballot initiative petered out.

The same day, a draft of a bill that would purportedly accomplish much of what the “Protect Girls Sports” ballot effort sought was introduced into the 2027 Legislature pipeline.

Republican Assemblymember Bert Gurr said this week that he had submitted his proposal to the Legislative Counsel Bureau. He plans to introduce the legislation for the third consecutive session after failed attempts in 2023 and 2025.

“While the ballot initiative process encountered delays, the need for action remains,” Gurr said in a statement. “Nevada’s young women deserve a level playing field, and the people of our state deserve elected officials willing to address an issue that enjoys broad public support.”

Gurr told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday that he hadn’t discussed his new proposal with Lombardo, but that he likes its chances if the Republican governor is reelected.

“The Governor is pleased that legislators are taking his call to protect female athletes seriously and appreciates Assemblyman Gurr’s commitment to introducing legislation,” Lombardo’s office told the Review-Journal in a statement Friday.

The statement added: “We will withhold comment on any particular legislation until the Governor and our office have had a chance to review it.”

The biennial Legislature is slated to kick off in February.

Polling shows policy proposal has broad support

Lombardo said June 19 that the Protect Girls’ Sports PAC had pulled its ballot initiative due to uncertainty because of legal delays. A day earlier, the Nevada Supreme Court gave a green light for voters to settle the issue in November.

The ballot initiative was challenged in Carson City District Court, where the complaint was dismissed. District Court Judge Jason Woodbury revised the ballot question’s language to explicitly note that the measure would amend the Nevada Constitution’s right to equality regardless of identity or expression.

But the delays made it impossible to meet ballot question requirements on time, Lombardo said. “If lawmakers refuse to do the right thing, we will take the court approval language directly to the voters in 2028.”

A Gallup poll conducted just over a year ago found that nearly 70 percent of Americans supported policies that limit athletes to participating on teams and in sports that correspond to their sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity.

Critics theorized ballot initiative lacked support

The Lombardo-backed measure was criticized by Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat challenging the governor’s re-election bid this year.

“Joe Lombardo lost what he called his ‘vote getter’ — and now, just as he predicted, his abysmal first term that wrecked the economy and drove up costs will cost him re-election,” Ford said in a statementJune 19.

Silver State Equality, a civil rights organization that advocates for LGBTQ Nevadans, and the Bravo Shrager law firm that helped challenge the ballot initiative in court, theorized that the ballot initiative hadn’t received sufficient support in Nevada.

Ballot organizers had until Wednesday to submit at least 148,788 signatures across the state’s four congressional districts to present the question to voters in November. It wasn’t clear how far they got into the process.

‘It’s a good bill’

Gurr’s two previous proposals — Assembly Bill 374 in 2023 and AB 240 in 2025 — died before receiving any votes.

“It would be really nice if the Democrats could at least get a hearing on it or allow us to have a hearing and see where the public is at with it,” Gurr said in a phone interview. “It’s a good bill.”

A release promoting Gurr’s proposal said that, if passed, the law would limit transgender athletes to sports based on their sex assigned at birth and would require school sports to be categorized as male, female or coed.

Under the ballot initiative, athletes born male would have been barred from teams designated for female athletes, and vice versa — in most cases. Athletes born female would be allowed to participate on male teams if there is no corresponding girls or women team available.

The rule would not apply to co-ed or mixed-sex sports leagues, according to the proposal.

It’s unclear how many transgender athletes participate in Nevada sports leagues.

The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, which governs high school sports in the state, modified its policy to prohibit athletes from competing in leagues or teams that don’t correspond to the gender listed on their birth certificates.

The rule change came after President Donald Trump issued the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order shortly after his second inauguration.

“Our office looks forward to working with Assemblyman Gurr and legislators from both parties to provide permanent protections for girls’ sports,” Lombardo’s office said.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.