Weekly Statehouse update: Partisan school boards, obscene performances, trans college sports ban

The House approves a bill forcing school board races to become partisan. A ban on governments supporting obscene performances advances to the Senate. And a transgender collegiate sports ban goes to the governor.

Here's what you might have missed this week at the Statehouse.

SB 287: School board matters

Some lawmakers had tried for years to get the House to approve a bill making school board candidates declare a political party. SB 287, narrowly approved by the House, requires those candidates to put a political label on the ballot next to their name: Democrat, Republican, independent or nonpartisan.

SB 326: Offenses against children

Obscene performances are illegal under Indiana law, defined as catering solely to sexual interests and without any literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

House Republicans approved a bill, SB 326, that bans state and local governments from hosting or funding such performances — which doesn't seem to be happening anywhere — and gives anyone the right to sue a government unit to stop a performance they think might be obscene.
 

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HEA 1041: Student eligibility in interscholastic sports

A bill headed to the governor's desk bans transgender women from competing in collegiate athletics.

The Senate approved HEA 1041 after Republicans rejected an amendment that would've protected college athletes from undergoing invasive genital examinations as part of the ban.

Find all the measures we're covering this legislative session on our 2025 bill tracker.
 

Brandon is our Statehouse bureau chief. Contact him at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.