On Wednesday, Feb. 26, the Nebraskan Legislature advanced two anti-transgender bills out of committee.
The legislature can now debate and vote on these bills, according to the Nebraska legislature’s website. It will take 24 votes for this bill to move from what is considered General file into what is referred to as engrossed. This is when the process of incorporating amendments into a bill, reviewing a bill for grammatical accuracy and phrasing. The bill then moves to a final reading, and if the legislature passes the final reading, it will be sent to the governor, who will decide if the bill passes.
LB730 will prohibit use of certain facilities such as locker rooms by the opposite sex. LB730 will also require each state agency to define an individual’s sex as either male or female for purposes of rules and regulations, the enforcement of administrative actions, and the adjudication of disputes.
LB732 prohibits health care practitioners from providing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to individuals younger than nineteen years of age.
According to two maps, titled ‘Adult Anti-Trans Legal Risk Assessment Map’ and ‘Youth Anti-Trans Legal Risk Assessment Map,’ Nebraska is a High Risk within 2 years and worst active-trans laws state respectively.
“It requires public schools, public post-secondary educational institutions, and state agencies to designate restrooms and locker rooms baked on sex and prohibit use by opposite sex,” Nebraska senator Kathleen Kauth said in a transcript prepared by Clerk of the Legislature Transcribers Office Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee January 28, 2026.
“If we believe in science, there are no other options. Let’s look at the definitions. Female means an individual, who naturally has, had, will have, or would have, but for a congenital anomaly, or intentional, or unintentional disruption the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes eggs for fertilization,” Kauth said.
When Donald Trump made an executive order that there were only two sexes, he ignored decades of medical and scientific research about sex and gender. GLAAD says that this is why every major medical association and health authority in the world recognizes and supports healthcare for transgender people. According to the Cleveland Clinic, people who are intersex have genitals, chromosomes or reproductive organs that don’t fit into the male/female sex binary. Their genitals might not match their reproductive organs. 1 in 100 Americans are born intersex. Scientifically, it’s not as simple as male and female.
The transcript alleges the need for this separation is because of past aggressive and explicit behavior from transgender people. These accusations are mostly against transgender women. However, a study done by UCLA Williams Institute in 2025 found that there was no evidence that letting transgender people use public facilities that align with their gender identity increases safety risks for those around them, according to NBC. However, many have been harassed in the pursuit of keeping others safe.
In Illinois, Lucien Bates, a transgender man, used a woman’s bathroom, because he felt safer using it than the men’s. He was kicked out and harassed by security. Nex Benedict was a sixteen-year-old nonbinary child who was brutally beaten unconscious in a bathroom in 2024. Tragically, Benedict would pass away the next day. Ansley Baker, a cisgender woman, was harassed by security guards at the Liberty Hotel in 2025 because they believed she was “a man in the women’s bathroom.” A 22-year-old Connecticut cisgender woman was harassed in a Walmart bathroom because she had short hair and a baseball cap, and people assumed she was transgender. These are just some of the stories coming out after these laws have been passed.
Several people came to oppose this law.
“If LB730 doesn’t pass this year, will there be another attempt? Will I have to come down to the Capitol every year to plead for my dignity?” Audrey Anderson, a person who spoke in opposition of this bill, said. “It’s OK to wary of something you don’t know or understand, but that does not excuse the oppression of those people. I’m not leaving this state because of taxes… I’m leaving because of threats against nonbinary and transgender Nebraskans. I don’t want my tax dollars to fund the persecution of me and my loved ones.”
Megan Hunt, a representative for the eight legislative districts in Omaha, went to the Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee to oppose LB730. While there, Hunt asked Kauth if she understood that passing this law in Nebraska would mean that a transgender man, who might have a beard, would be forced to use the women’s restroom.
“No, I will be in the bathroom with a big tough, bearded woman,” Kauth responded. “I think going based on biology and sex versus what someone looks like is a much better.”
The other bill that was advanced out of committee, LB732, will prohibit health care practitioners from providing cross-sex hormones puberty blockers to individuals younger than nineteen years of age.
A research letter on gender-affirming medications among transgender adolescents in the U.S. states that 1.4% of teenagers aged 13 to 17 identify transgender and gender diverse. This statistic comes from a cross-sectional study done with data from Merative MarketScan, one the largest running proprietary US claims databases used for healthcare.
“The total number of youth who had any diagnosis of gender dysphoria was less than 18,000” Landon Hughes, a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard, said to NPR, “Among those folks, there were than less than, 1,000 that accessed puberty blockers, and less than 2,000 that ever had access to hormones.”
Braden Foreman-Black, a social worker and therapist at Kindred Psychology in Nebraska, opposed this bill.
“I was pleased that Senator Kauth agreed to meet, because I thought, ‘wow, we’re finally gonna get some common ground here,’” Foreman-Black said. “Unfortunately, I quickly learned at the onset of that meeting that Kauth had no intention to respect the expertise of the trained Nebraska professional.”
Foreman-Black claims that in his interaction with Kauth was not great. He said she invited paid biased agitators whose sole mission is to discredit trans individuals.
Foreman-Black said that Kauth refused to listen. Foreman-Black focuses the rest of his statement on the mental health repercussions that could occur when we decide to exclude people from society.
“I believe government should make people’s lives better, not harder. These bills do the opposite,” David Mendoza Torres, a Nebraskan father, said. “This doesn’t make anyone safer. It creates fear and confusion for families… Nebraska has always valued freedom, fairness, and minding our own business. In fact, our state’s motto, if you didn’t know, is ‘Equality before the Law.’ That’s a promise every Nebraskan should be treated with.”
Brad Olderbing is the father to a transgender child. He made an appeal after noticing his daughter was having difficulties.
“You draw on past experiences, your own upbringing, your faith, and your community. Senators, in preparation for this testimony, I did look at your bios, and we actually have a lot in common. I grew up in a Catholic family on a dairy farm in rural Nebraska. I am a Husker alumni. I’m married, two kids, and have a successful medical practice here in town… Ask yourselves, if you and I come from the very similar backgrounds, and it’s those backgrounds that you draw on when it comes to tough parenting decisions, what would do if your next child or grandchild is transgender? Parents will do whatever it takes to keep their kids healthy and happy. That is really all that matters. My child will never go back to the other bathroom, even if it means moving away from this state that I’ve lived in my entire life. My kids are worth it.”
