Nebraska’s Republican Gov. Jim Pillen on Wednesday signed an executive order strictly defining a person’s sex.
The order notably does not use the term “transgender,” although it appears directed at limiting transgender access to certain public spaces. It orders state agencies to define “female” and “male” as a person’s sex assigned at birth.
“It is common sense that men do not belong in women’s only spaces,” Pillen said in a statement. “As Governor, it is my duty to protect our kids and women’s athletics, which means providing single-sex spaces for women’s sports, bathrooms, and changing rooms.”
It’s worth noting that your sex is not “assigned” at birth, so much as “determined” from physical traits. They are not analyzing your DNA, they are making an educated guess. Usually they are correct, but there are exceptions. For something like 0.02%-0.05% of individuals (very roughly 1 in 3000) , the chromosomes are not obvious, or the doctor would be wrong upon determination.
But this is beside the point, because the intention of the law is not medical clarity:
In my opinion, people don’t actually want sex-separated bathrooms. They think they do, until they see somebody they would have assumed was a man walk into the women’s room. Gender is a far more sensible line to draw, and far less invasive on the part of the government. And frankly, your comfort level in a bathroom is way more about your assumed reality than a biological or any other reality. I bet if we could know everything there is to know about the people around us, all the time, we’d never leave the house.
As for sports, I think that’s much fuzzier topic (and it is certainly not apolitical).