A ballot measure that would bar transgender girls from competing in K-12 girls’ sports was ahead in early returns across Washington, with 56.7% of voters backing Initiative 638 and 43.3% opposed as of Tuesday night, according to results reported by FOX 13 Seattle. The tally reflected 1,117,424 yes votes to 851,957 no votes, though the count was not final.
The measure would require students seeking to compete in girls’ sports regulated by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association to undergo testing to confirm their birth sex, according to KNKX. Reported possible verification methods included a genital exam, a testosterone hormone test, or a chromosome test, the station reported. As The Seattle Times reported, the initiative would apply only to girls’ athletics, leaving transgender boys unaffected, and supporters have said students would still be able to compete in boys or co-ed athletics.
The vote marks the first time Washington voters, and voters nationwide, have directly weighed in on whether transgender girls can play on girls’ school sports teams, per The Seattle Times. Washington has more than 225,000 student athletes, the paper reported, and the WIAA — which regulates middle and high school sports — has said it is aware of roughly 10 transgender student athletes competing in the state each year, though it does not formally track that number, according to KUOW.
A Policy Dating to 2007 Now Under Direct Challenge
Washington’s current rules allow students to play on the team that matches their gender identity without additional proof, the same KNKX report noted. That approach traces back to 2007, when the state first adopted a policy letting students compete according to their gender identity, according to KUOW. The Seattle Times reported that Washington was among the first states to allow transgender students to compete consistent with their gender identity under the WIAA’s participation policy.
Initiative 638 is one of three measures that the group Let’s Go Washington pushed onto this year’s ballot, alongside a parents’ bill of rights measure and an effort to repeal the state’s new high-earner income tax, per the same KUOW report. Results reported by FOX 13 Seattle showed that companion measure, Initiative 645, trailing 41.9% to 58.1%, while Initiative 001, the parental-rights measure, was behind 47.2% to 52.8%. Let’s Go Washington had turned in roughly 445,000 signatures to qualify Initiative 638 for the ballot, according to the Washington State Standard, after majority Democrats in Olympia declined to take up the measure and sent it to voters instead.
Supporters Cite Fairness, Opponents Call Testing Invasive
Supporters have framed the initiative as a matter of girls’ safety and competitive fairness, the Washington State Standard reported. The Seattle Times reported that endorsements came from groups including XX-XY Athletics, the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender, and the Washington State Young Republicans. Supporters have also said verification could draw on a doctor’s existing clinical history or a routine sports physical, per the Times.
But medical providers who spoke with the Times said that kind of sex verification is not part of a typical sports physical. The opposition campaign, No Hate in WA State, has called the proposed inspections “potentially harmful” and “invasive,” the Washington State Standard reported. The Washington Academy of Family Physicians also opposed the measure, and the Times reported that opponents argue barring transgender girls from teams with their peers amounts to discrimination.
Opposition has extended well beyond advocacy groups. Gov. Bob Ferguson opposed Initiative 638, according to the Times, and more than a dozen city councils across the state — including Seattle, Lynnwood, Tacoma, and Shoreline — passed resolutions against it. The Renton Reporter reported that the Renton City Council passed its own resolution opposing Initiative 638 at an Oct. 19 meeting, alongside opposition to a second state initiative.
Part of a Wider National Pattern
Washington was one of four states where voters faced ballot measures on school-sports sex-based eligibility this cycle, joining Arizona, Colorado, and Nebraska, according to the Washington State Standard. In Colorado, Propositions 134 and 135 asked voters separately about barring transgender children from gendered sports that don’t match their biological sex and about restricting certain surgeries for minors, per The Colorado Sun.
Idaho became the first state to institute a ban on transgender student participation in girls’ and women’s sports in 2020, and the Movement Advancement Project has reported that 27 states now restrict transgender students from competing on teams consistent with their gender identity. As of Nov. 3, the group estimated that half of transgender youth ages 13 to 17 nationwide live in states with such laws, while 47% live in states without them, according to the Movement Advancement Project. Still, The 19th reported that none of those 27 states require student-athletes to verify their birth sex, and that Florida lawmakers stripped a similar testing requirement from their own 2021 sports law after widespread criticism.
Closer to home, a separate WIAA proposal that would have barred transgender girls from girls’ sports failed to reach the 60% approval threshold the organization requires, according to KOMO News. The WIAA said that even if the proposal had passed, it could not have been implemented because it conflicted with Washington state law barring discrimination based on gender identity, per the same report.
Election officials will continue counting ballots in the coming days, and the Washington State Standard noted the measure could face a legal challenge if it is ultimately approved by voters. The Seattle Times reported that passage would mark a major turning point for transgender rights in Washington, a state that has allowed trans students to compete consistent with their gender identity since 2007.
