The Nevada Department of Education postponed adopting a gender-diverse regulation Tuesday after community members flooded a public meeting mostly to testify against it.

The proposed regulation is an outgrowth of Senate Bill 225, which requires the state to provide a policy that ensures a safe and respectful learning environment for students with diverse gender identities or expressions. State officials first held a public workshop July 31 to begin crafting the language.

State Superintendent Steve Canavero delayed the regulation’s adoption because the Clark County School District is in the midst of creating its own gender-diverse policy. The school district’s gender diverse working group is hosting a series of public meetings starting Friday before issuing a recommendation to Clark County Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky.

Canavero said he wants to ensure that the two policies are “congruent” before moving forward with the regulation, which will serve as the statewide model.

“It has to fit for all of our state and all of the children in our schools,” he said.

The decision came after nearly three hours of public testimony from dozens of community members. Opponents decried the proposed regulation, describing it as an infringement on their rights rather than an anti-bullying measure. Most of the concerns boiled down to whether the policy change would silence parents and force their children to comply with rules counter to their beliefs.

Audrey Taylor, who’s expecting her sixth child in February, said implementing such a regulation could cause more “pain” and “confusion” for children. She described all students, including those with different gender identities, as children of God.

“It is going to corrupt our society in the future,” she said.

Erick Ruiz, a ninth-grader at a charter school, put his objections to the regulation more bluntly: “To make it short, a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl.”

Despite the large contingent of opponents — mostly parents — who mobilized to attend the meeting and speak out against it, a number of supporters showed up as well. Among them: 15-year-old Kristina Hernandez, who identifies as femme nonbinary, and urged opponents to acknowledge the existence of children with different gender identities.

“My experience in school forced me to leave because of the violence I endured as a queer individual,” Hernandez said. “I hope that by seeing me today, it has helped you to understand that trans youth are no different than your kids.”

Later, a mother, Jennifer Robertson, described how her transgender daughter hit the “principal jackpot” in her second elementary school after having a bad experience at her first school. The new principal was supportive and understanding of her daughter’s needs, she said.

“Had there been a policy in place for transgender students that was districtwide, none of the fears our family had would have been an issue,” Robertson said, adding that the proposed regulation shouldn’t be in question. “It should be in place.”

During the meeting, state education officials also cleared up some misconceptions about the regulation. It would be used on a case-by-case basis to ensure a safe learning environment for gender-diverse students — not as broad reform at public schools, Canavero said.

“There’s no requirement that has to do with locker rooms or bathrooms in here,” he said. “There’s also no requirement to discipline students — and that was a concern we heard — for use of a pronoun other than a student’s preferred pronoun. But my suggestion is that would only carry so far as it crosses the line to bullying.”