Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, (R), signed an executive order on Wednesday that narrowly defines a person’s gender. LGBTQ rights activists have said this move will exclude transgender people and those who are not gender conforming from state law.

The executive order, signed by Pillen on Wednesday, defines females in law as people “whose reproductive system was designed to produce eggs” and males are those “whose reproductive system has been developed to fertilize a female’s egg.” It also instructs state agencies to determine a person’s sex based on the gender they were born with.

In the order issued on Wednesday, Pillen wrote that “biological differences” between males and women are “immutable and enduring”, and there are “legitimate reasons” to differentiate between the sexes in areas “where biology, safety and/or privacy is implicated.”

Pillen, in a Wednesday statement, said that it was “common sense” that men should not be in spaces reserved for women. As Governor, I have a duty to protect my children and women’s sport, which includes providing women-only spaces, bathrooms and changing rooms.

The order that went into effect immediately will expire when Nebraska legislators pass legislation prohibiting transgender girls and women from participating in female school sports teams, and prohibiting transgender individuals from using facilities consistent with their gender identities.

Kathleen Kauth, a Republican state senator from California, introduced a bill this year to limit transgender participation and access to school locker rooms and restrooms. The bill failed to move out of the committee before the chaotic end of the legislative session, which was marked by a long-running Democratic filibuster over a different bill that would have banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender children.

This bill, sponsored by Kauth as well, sought to prohibit Nebraska health care providers from administering hormones, puberty blockers and surgeries to children and adolescents who are transgender and younger than 19 years old. The bill was passed after Republicans in Nebraska’s unicameral Legislature combined it with a measure that would ban abortion after 12 week of pregnancy.

Pillen signed the bill in May and called it “the biggest win for social conservatism in Nebraska in more than a generation” at a signing event in Lincoln. The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the law that is set to go into effect on Oct. 1.

Megan Hunt (a Democrat) and Machaela Cavanaugh, a Democrat, who led the filibuster in this session, criticized Pillen’s executive order. The order was signed on the same day that the University of Nebraska volleyball team broke the world record for attendance by women’s sports.

Hunt, a parent of a transgender kid, wrote on Wednesday: “Unfortunately the Governor chose to divide us during this historic day, when many Nebraskans were gathered to celebrate and honor women’s athletics. The truth is that no executive order will erase transgender people. They’ve always been there and will always be.

Republicans passed laws this year that narrowly define a person’s sex in several states, including Montana Kansas and Tennessee. LGBTQ civil rights organizations have denounced them as an attempt to block the legal recognition of transgender people’s gender identities. Oklahoma’s Republican Governor. Kevin Stitt, the Republican governor of Oklahoma, signed an executive order that was almost identical to Pillen’s on April 1.