A bill in Nebraska that would have kept males out of women’s restrooms and off of girls’ sports teams at schools failed after two Republicans abstained from voting on the measure after they initially indicated support for the legislation.
The bill, known as the “Sports and Spaces Act,” failed on Friday after it did not get enough votes to advance it past cloture for a vote on the actual legislation. It needed to get 33 votes in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature, but was blocked from moving forward after a 31-15 vote.
Two Republicans, state Sens. Tom Brandt and Merv Riepe, both abstained from the cloture vote even though they had initially signed on as sponsors to the legislation. The measure, introduced by state Sen. Kathleen Kauth, would have defined male as someone with XY chromosomes and male anatomy and a female as someone with XX chromosomes and female anatomy.
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