Welcome to OutNebraska’s Bill Tracker! In this resource, we will we provide information and updates on 2025 bills relevant to the LGBTQ+ community in Nebraska.
Note: Bills we oppose are formatted in red with a large “X” symbol, and bills we support are formatted in green with a checkmark symbol. Bills we are otherwise watching are formatted in gray with an eye symbol.
Bills With Upcoming Hearings
These bills have upcoming committee hearings. Hearings are a time for public input on legislation and for the committee to investigate the merits of a bill.
What you can do: Submit online comment or plan to attend the hearing.
❌ LB 655: Allows the denial of health care based on a "sincerely held" belief, enabling discrimination
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Murman
- Committee: Health and Human Services
- Status: Committee Hearingat 1:30PM Friday, Feb. 21, 2025 | Room 1510
LB 655 would allow healthcare providers and insurance companies to deny care or coverage based on a “sincerely held” belief. LGBTQ+ people, women, and people of color are the patients unfairly targeted by this type of policy.
✅ LB 68: Provides insurance and Medicaid coverage for contraceptives
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Raybould
- Committee: Banking, Commerce and Insurance
- Status: Committee Hearing at 1:30pm on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025 | Room 1507
LB68 would provide insurance and Medicaid coverage for contraceptives.
❌ LB 258: Limits minimum wage increase and creates a sub-minimum wage for youth
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Raybould
- Committee: Business and Labor
- Status: Committee Hearing at 1:30PM Monday, Feb. 24, 2025 | Room 2102
LB258 would limit minimum wage increases and create a sub-minimum wage for youth. Nebraskans voted to amend our minimum wage laws in 2022, tying future increases for all workers to the cost of living. This bill undercuts our minimum wage protections for hard-working Nebraskans of all ages.
✅ LB 53: Provides criminal and civil immunity for pregnancy outcomes
Bill description and details
- Introducer: M. Cavanaugh
- Committee: Judiciary
- Status: Committee Hearing at 1:30PM Thursday, March 6, 2025 | Room 1525
Bills Awaiting Hearings
❌ LB 552: Ban Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices, positions, and programming at public colleges & universities
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Lippincott
- Committee: Education
- Status: Waiting for a hearing date to be set
LB552 is a continued attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in Nebraska. The bill would eliminate diversity offices, programming, and positions at public colleges. Work that would support LGBTQ+ students (like allyship trainings, resources for transgender students) are explicitly called out in the bill.
✅ LB 367: Prohibits conversion therapy
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Hunt
- Committee: Health and Human Services
- Status: Waiting for a hearing date to be set
❌ LB 541: Eliminate online voter registration and restrict early voting options
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Holdcroft
- Committee: Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs
- Status: Waiting for a hearing date to be set
LB541 would eliminate online voter registration, restrict voter registration by mail, require grounds for early voting, require hand counts of ballots, and change provisions relating to voter registration and voting. Our communities deserve to have their voices heard and their votes respected, no matter how they choose to cast their vote.
OutNebraska is additionally concerned as this would interfere with our Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) work during pride seasons.
❌ LB 549: Allow a school board to employ a chaplain, including in a volunteer capacity, at a school
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Lippincott
- Committee: Education
- Status: Waiting for a hearing date to be set
❌ LB 550: Require school districts to adopt a policy that excuses students to attend a released time course for religious instruction
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Lippincott
- Committee: Education
- Status: Waiting for a hearing date to be set
Bills Waiting in Committee
These bills have been assigned to a committee and have already had hearings. The committee may vote to move the bills onto General File for debate, indefinitely postpone the bills, or take no action on them.
What you can do: Contact the committee or your senator to state your position and how this bill affects your life.
❌ LB 89: Mandates discrimination against transgender Nebraskans in schools and across state agencies
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Kauth
- Committee: Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs
- Status: Committee Hearing in Room 1507 at 1:30PM on Friday, February 7, 2025
Let’s break down this bill, LB 89:
- Creates new, extremely narrow definitions for sex. Erasing the existence of transgender, non-binary, and intersex people in order to control and exclude anyone “different.”
- Restricts transgender youth, college students, & adults from facilities (ex: bathrooms in schools and government offices / domestic violence shelters) using these new definitions. Blocking youth and adults from the spaces we are most comfortable and safe in.
- Excludes trans people from public life. This bill treats trans youth and adults differently than our peers, ostracizing us and making it harder for us to participate in daily activities like school or work.
Why you should oppose: This bill seeks to narrowly define our community in order to exclude us from public spaces. All our voices – cis and trans, gay and straight, queer and allied – need to speak out against LB 89.
✅ LB 368: Establishes the Nebraska Youth in Care Bill of Rights
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Hunt
- Committee: Judiciary
- Status: Committee Hearing in Room 1525 at 1:30PM on Friday, February 7, 2025
Establishes the Nebraska Youth in Care Bill of Rights, guaranteeing specific rights to youth in state custody such as freedom from religion, freedom from discrimination (sexual orientation and gender identity), etc.
Why you should support: Every Nebraska youth in the state’s care should understand their rights and have the right to fair treatment by the state. LGBTQ+ youth make an outsized portion of Nebraska’s youth in care.
❌ LB 509: Adopt the Opportunity Scholarships Act that would give dollar-for-dollar tax credits to Nebraskans that donate to scholarships funds for private and faith-based schools
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Sorrentino
- Committee: Revenue
- Status: Hearing concluded
LB509 would direct public funds to private schools. Nebraskans repealed the last Opportunity Scholarship Act in 2024. Public funds should not go to private schools, many of which discriminate against LGBTQ+ youth.
❌ LB 3: Change provisions relating to selection of presidential electors
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Lippincott
- Committee: Government, Military and Veterans Affairs
- Status: Committee Hearing in Room 1525 at 1:30PM on Thursday, January 30, 2025
❌ LR 24CA: Constitutional amendment to end splitting of Nebraska's electoral votes (winner-take-all)
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Dorn
- Committee: Government, Military and Veterans Affairs
- Status: Committee Hearing in Room 1525 at 1:30PM on Thursday, January 30, 2025
✅ LB 70: Provide for adoption by a second adult person
Bill description and details
- Introducer: DeBoer
- Committee: Judiciary
- Status: Committee Hearing in Room 1525 at 1:30PM on Friday, January 24, 2025
Would update the current adoption standard to allow for a second adult to adopt a child.
Why you should support: This bill would protect legal parent-child relationships for people who may not be automatically recognized as legal parents. (Example: adoptive, step, and non-biological parent protections)
❌ LB 390: Restricted library access bill
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Murman
- Committee: Education
- Status: In Committee
This bill would require each school board to adopt a policy relating to access by a parent, guardian, or educational decision maker to certain school library information.
Why you should oppose: While unassuming at its surface, tactics included in this bill to catalog and notify parents have been used to restrict library access and facilitate book banning.
✅ LB 165: Authorize syringe services programs
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Hunt
- Committee: Judiciary
- Status: Committee Hearing in Room 1525 at 1:30PM on Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Would allow the governing body of a municipality or county to authorize the operation of a Syringe Service Program (SSP)
Why you should support: This bill would allow communities to have Syringe Service Programs which are used to battle the rise in HIV and Hepatitis rates in our community by providing access and disposal of sterile syringes.
✅ LR 5CA: Constitutional amendment to remove prohibition against recognizing same-sex marriages
Bill description and details
- Introducer: M. Cavanaugh
- Committee: Judiciary
- Status: Committee Hearing in Room 1525 at 1:30PM on Friday, January 31, 2025
Constitutional amendment to eliminate provisions relating to marriage and marriage licenses
Why you should support: This bill would remove the outdated same sex marriage ban from the state constitution.
✅ LR 6CA: Constitutional amendment to recognize marriage regardless of gender and race
Bill description and details
- Introducer: M. Cavanaugh
- Committee: Judiciary
- Status: Committee Hearing in Room 1525 at 1:30PM on Friday, January 31, 2025
Constitutional amendment to recognize marriage of couples regardless of gender and race and strike language regarding gender.
Why you should support: This bill would protect the right to marry for all Nebraskans, regardless of gender or race. This would ensure that both LGBTQ+ couples and interracial couples are legally allowed to get married.
✅ LR 15CA: Constitutional amendment to prohibit the death penalty
Bill description and details
- Introducer: MicKinney
- Committee: Judiciary
- Status: Committee Hearing in Room 1525 at 1:30PM on Friday, January 31, 2025
❌ LB 432: Authorizes use of nitrogen gas for the death penalty, a method opposed by international human rights experts
Bill description and details
- Introducer: Lippincott
- Committee: Judiciary
- Status: Committee Hearing in Room 1525 at 1:30PM on Friday, January 31, 2025
Bills on the Floor
Currently, there are no bills on the floor.
Stay Tuned for Updates
We will be keeping this page up to date as bills move through the legislature. Bookmark this page and check back for updates!
You can also sign up for our monthly legislative updates email. By signing up, OutNebraska will keep you in the loop about bills affecting the LGBTQ+ community as well as alert you to LGBTQ+ community events and needed action in your area. You will be opted-in to a monthly legislative recap email, as well as action alerts about specific bills.