WA initiative to bar trans girls from school sports will likely go to voters
A citizen-led initiative that would bar transgender students from participating in girls’ athletics at Washington’s K-12 schools will likely appear on the November general election ballot.
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs’ office announced Thursday that it has certified the signatures submitted in support of Initiative IL26-638, setting up the measure to qualify for the November ballot if legislators do not take action on it.
If approved by voters, the initiative would prohibit transgender girls — or anyone assigned male at birth — in Washington from participating with cisgender girls in athletic programs at K-12 schools. The initiative would further require girls who wish to play on these teams to submit documentation of their assigned sex at birth as part of a physical exam.
The initiative received 445,187 signatures, according to Let’s Go Washington, the conservative political committee that sponsored the measure.
“To all the young women who stood up and spoke out about biological boys taking your places on your teams and invading your safe spaces: thank you,” Let’s Go Washington founder Brian Heywood said in a statement Thursday. “Thank you for your bravery in the face of harassment, bullying, attacks, and threats of lawsuits.”
The Washington initiative is part of a conservative political effort nationwide to limit transgender students’ participation in athletics. One of President Donald Trump’s first executive orders after his 2025 inauguration aimed to bar all transgender women and girls from participating in female sports at federally funded educational institutions.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court considered two cases pertaining to state laws that prevent transgender women and girls from participating in women’s athletics. Since 2007, Washington has allowed transgender student athletes to compete on teams that are consistent with their gender identities.
Opponents of the initiative, including WA Families for Freedom, a coalition of organizations lobbying against Let’s Go Washington’s efforts, have said the initiative puts students in danger of “greater risk of abuse” and “forced outing.” The coalition includes the state’s Gender Justice League, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and Service Employees International Union 775, among other groups.
“Heywood’s measure would make all female students less safe and could put girls as young as 11, who want to participate in school sports, at risk of unnecessary genital examinations or having to undergo expensive genetic testing,” the group wrote in a statement Thursday.
The initiative’s language does not include “genital examinations,” but it does indicate the required confirmation could come from a health care provider’s signed statement that “verifies the student’s biological sex” via “the student’s reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels.”
The secretary of state’s office is also reviewing signatures for a second initiative from Let’s Go Washington: Initiative IL26-001. The measure would, if approved, overwrite certain changes made by state lawmakers in 2025 to the so-called “Washington Parents’ Bill of Rights.”
The parental “bill of rights” allows parents and legal guardians of students in public schools to examine teaching materials used in their children’s classrooms; request their children’s school records; and opt their children out of school activities that ask the student about sexual attraction, mental health or their family’s religious or political beliefs, among other rights.
Let’s Go Washington submitted 416,201 signatures for initiative IL26-001.
The secretary of state’s office approves an initiative’s submitted signatures by reviewing a random 3% sample for invalid signatures.
After the secretary of state’s office validates signatures for an initiative, the state Legislature can pass the initiative as written; reject it or take no action at all, which sends the measure to the next general election’s ballot; or propose an alternative measure for voters to consider.
Democratic lawmakers have said they will not hold legislative hearings on either of the two initiatives, a common — but not required — step in the initiative process that allows the public to testify in favor or against the measures.