Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo announced Wednesday that he is leading a petition drive to amend the state constitution to bar transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, even though bans are already in place at both the state and national level. The Protect Girls’ Sports In Nevada PAC filed its ballot initiative language Wednesday and must collect at least 148,788 valid signatures by June 24 to qualify the measure for the ballot.
The initiative, led by Lombardo as he prepares for his own 2026 re-election bid, would need to pass two successive general elections to take effect — and would face a potential legal conflict with Nevada’s 2022 Equal Rights Amendment, which guarantees equal rights regardless of gender identity or expression.
“We are taking thoughtful steps to ensure girls’ sports are fair and athletes are safe,” Lombardo said in a Wednesday press release.
What the initiative would do
The proposed amendment would require the state and entities receiving public funds — including schools, college and local athletic programs, and their governing bodies — to categorize each sport or competition as male, female, or coeducational/mixed sex, according to the PAC.
To qualify for the ballot, the PAC must gather at least 148,788 valid signatures — equal to 10 percent of the votes cast in the last general election — with at least 37,197 signatures from each of Nevada’s four congressional districts. The June 24 deadline is the last day petitioners may submit signatures.
The measure would also face a multi-election ratification hurdle. Under Nevada’s constitutional amendment process, the initiative must pass in two successive general elections before it can be added to the state constitution.
Bans already in place
Nevada already operates under restrictions on transgender athlete participation that took effect over the past year. The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association, which oversees athletics at more than 120 high schools in the state, repealed a policy last April that had previously allowed transgender students to compete on teams aligned with their gender identity.
At the collegiate level, the NCAA’s board voted to bar transgender athletes from women’s collegiate sports following a February 2025 executive order from President Donald Trump that sought the same outcome and threatened to cut federal funding from noncompliant programs. NCAA Executive Director Charlie Baker has said fewer than a dozen known transgender athletes are competing in college sports nationwide.
The Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association has said it cannot provide data on how many transgender student athletes, if any, are currently competing in Nevada, citing federal student privacy policies.
Constitutional tension
Nevada voters passed a broad Equal Rights Amendment in 2022 that guarantees equal rights regardless “of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry, or national origin.” The proposed ballot initiative would add competing constitutional language, creating a potential conflict that courts would likely be asked to resolve.
Nevada is among 21 states, five territories, and Washington, D.C., that do not have a state law prohibiting transgender athletes from competing on teams at the K-12 and collegiate level that align with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank. Legislation to address the issue has been blocked in the state’s Democrat-controlled legislature.
The PAC and its backers
Lombardo will serve as the PAC’s honorary chair. The PAC’s other leaders include Assemblywoman Heidi Kasama (R-Las Vegas); Adriana Guzmán Fralick, an attorney running in the Republican primary for Nevada attorney general; and Erica Neely, who is seeking the Assembly seat currently held by House Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas), who is not running for re-election.
Lombardo, who previously backed a voter ID ballot initiative that passed in 2024, is up for re-election in 2026.
Democratic candidates respond
Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill, who is running in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, called the petition “hateful” in a Wednesday interview and said she supports transgender athletes playing for the team that best aligns with their gender identity. “I think that this is all about politics to drive Republican turnout and it’s unacceptable and really a nonissue in Nevada,” she said.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, Hill’s primary opponent, offered a more divided assessment. Ford said in a Wednesday statement that he does not personally support transgender athletes playing in sports that do not match their sex assigned at birth, but called the initiative a “political ploy” to drum up support for Lombardo’s re-election campaign. Ford said he was concerned the measure could increase discrimination against transgender Nevadans.
“My faith teaches me that every person is a child of God and deserves to be treated with humanity, dignity, and respect,” Ford said. “And as Attorney General, I will continue defending the constitutional rights of every Nevadan.”