Poll: Nevada voters support Ballot Question 1 on state ERA, oppose potential implications

(The Center Square) – A new Rasmussen Reports and the Capitol Resource Institute poll found that most of Nevada’s likely voters oppose allowing men who identify as women to compete in women’s sports.

Of the 707 voters surveyed between October 13 and 17, 72% opposed and 57% strongly opposed allowing men in women’s sports. Another 65% of voters oppose allowing men into women’s locker rooms and bathrooms.

Yet 61% of voters support Ballot Question 1, a proposition to add an Equality of Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Nevada Constitution. The amendment goes beyond the federal ERA by including equal rights guarantees for the categories of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity or expression.”

A Nevada Independent/OH Predictive Insights poll in September similarly found that 62% of Nevadans support Question 1.

“Like most propositions progressive push, the details are always hidden,” said Karen England, President of the Capitol Resource Institute, in a statement. “This poll clearly shows if Nevadans knew that Question 1 will hurt women and girls, they would oppose this measure.”

“Question 1 allows for biological males to compete in girls sports, access their locker rooms and bathrooms and Nevadans do not support this attack on women and girls. While other states are protecting girls, Nevada legislators are doing everything they can to erase women,” England continued.

Sixty-seven percent of voters polled said they would oppose Question 1 if they knew it would allow males to compete in women’s sports.

The Alliance Defending Freedom opposed the ballot initiative on these grounds when the state legislature passed it in 2019.

“S.J.R. 8 would open the door to government-mandated discrimination, inequality, and coercion,” ADF wrote, “…it would hurt women, religious organizations and schools, medical professionals, and could even mandate that taxpayers pay for others to receive abortions.”

The organization added that it could “mandate that men who self-identify as women be allowed to compete for spots on female sports teams” and “forbid religious schools and organizations from ensuring that their employees abide by their doctrines or beliefs about marriage, sexual behavior, and the distinction between the sexes.”

ADF, along with other organizations, also noted that it may be used as a justification for taxpayer-funded abortion.

“Courts in New Mexico and Connecticut have used state ERA laws similar to the language in SJR8 to overturn state laws prohibiting taxpayer funding of abortion on the grounds that to not fund abortion is sex discrimination,” said Don Nelson, Pro-Life League of Nevada representative. “The rationale is that since abortion is a medical procedure sought only by women, laws treating abortion differently from other medical procedures is a form of sex discrimination. The same rationale will be used to expand and protect abortion in Nevada.”

Democrat State Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro wrote in favor of the amendment.

“At every decision point in history, the quest for equality has met with stiff and obstinate opposition,” Cannizzaro said. “Equal justice has NEVER been given. We must persist in this effort to achieve equal rights.”

“The measure before you today clarifies that the equality of rights should not only be based upon the sex of an individual, but on the wholistic aspects of all persons, which includes the mind, body, and spirit,” Cannizzaro continued.

The full amendment text states, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by this State or any of its political subdivisions on account of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry or national origin.”

While 26 other states have adopted ERAs, Nevada’s amendment is the most wide-ranging.