Measure banning trans girls from girls’ K-12 sports projected to pass in Washington

VANCOUVER Wash. - Washington voters approved a ballot measure barring transgender girls from participating on girls’ school sports teams, reversing longstanding state guidance.

The Associated Press called the race for Initiative 638 at 6:14 p.m. Wednesday, with 68% of the vote counted.

“Everyone’s talking about this blue wave of progress that happened in this country last night but in that wave the trans kids got swept away with the tide,” said Terah Ebie, president of the Queer Community Network, an advocacy organization serving the LGBTQ+ community in southwest Washington.

The measure, sponsored by political action committee Let’s Go Washington, overturns the state’s policy allowing transgender girls to compete on K-12 athletic teams that align with their gender identity.

Under Initiative 638, any student seeking to play on a girls’ team must complete a biological sex verification process during routine sports physicals. Medical providers must sign a form confirming sex based on reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup or endogenous testosterone levels.

As of Wednesday evening, AP reported approximately 1.25 million votes in favor and 961,000 against.

“I think this doesn’t happen unless there’s a lot of moms whose daughters are in soccer and basketball and cross country who sort of felt abandoned and felt like this was a dangerous and a dumb thing that the state had made as a policy to force girls into these situations,” said Brian Heywood, founder of Let’s Go Washington. “This is no movement on anything within the trans community or anything against trans kids. This was entirely protecting girls’ spaces.”

Debate over transgender athletes in single-sex sports gained heightened attention statewide in October, when several members of the Camas High School girls’ cross-country team walked off during a meet to protest a transgender teammate competing on the squad.

Opponents argue the policy will harm transgender students. Ebie said the law will isolate transgender youth from standard childhood experiences and called for greater inclusivity in school athletics.

“It makes me want to ask a question whether this legislation is really protecting our girls or whether we just created new barriers for equality and women’s sports and I worry about the message that we’re sending to all of our children when we legislate that their bodies are subject to scrutiny,” Ebie said.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association did not immediately respond to FOX12’s inquiry about how the measure will be implemented.