Washington voters backing initiative to keep transgender girls out of girls’ sports

The only state ballot measure that will likely pass in Tuesday’s election is the one that would prohibit transgender girls from competing in K-12 girls’ sports. It’s a major loss for the progressive left.

As of Tuesday night, Initiative 638 leads with nearly 57% of the total votes counted thus far. 

“To every female athlete who wondered whether her voice mattered: tonight, Washington heard you,” Brian Heywood, founder of the political organization backing the measure Let’s Go Washington, said in a statement. “Five years from now, I hope girl athletes don’t know this fight took place, because that will mean that boys know their place is not in girls’ sports.”

Members of the opposition campaign, No Hate in Washington State, called out Let’s Go Washington and Heywood, a hedge fund manager, for using the measure as a means to “distract from the real issues.”

“We look forward to the ballot returns over the next few days and are hopeful that Washington voters will also reject I-638, the attempt to scapegoat a handful of vulnerable trans children,” Libby Watson, campaign manager, said in a statement. 

Approximately 10 Washington students have disclosed being transgender to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, but the initiative would affect all girls who wish to participate in K-12 sports. 

As it is, the measure requires students in K-12 sports to undergo a physical examination. The measure adds a requirement for medical professionals during those exams: verifying a student’s sex assigned at birth. 

School boards, or other school governing entities, would be required to create the rules on what sex verification would look like. It would rely on “one or more” of the following methods: “the student’s reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels,” according to the initiative.

Some school districts have backed the measure. Earlier this year, the Mead School Board unanimously passed a resolution supporting the initiative.

“We’ve consistently recognized the inherent biological and physiological differences that give male athletes a competitive advantage in most sports,” said Michael Cannon, school board director. “This has been an issue that has always had majority support.”