While the rest of the country is riding the Blue Wave — featuring historic victories for Democratic candidates in Texas, Michigan, and Kansas — many Washington voters are feeling disappointed. The state, often lauded as one of the most progressive in the country, just voted in favor of Initiative 638, which aims to prohibit Trans girls from participating in K-12 school sports.
Many local Trans voters, like Madeline Clere, who recently moved to Seattle from the South to escape transphobic policies, are shocked by the results.
“Tuesday night, I was despondent,” Clere told the SGN. “I moved here from Kentucky because this was supposed to be a place which protected and upheld Trans rights. Seeing the results, above all, I felt alone. It’s one thing when a legislative body or court strips away your rights, but to know exactly how many of your neighbors think you belong in fewer spaces is such an isolating feeling.”
“I’m deeply heartbroken to hear that Washington state chose to betray not only the Trans community but all young women who wish to participate in sports,” added Billie Manton, a Seattle voter and Trans woman. Unfortunately, Tuesday’s initiative results weren’t a shock to Manton: “I work all over the state, and I’ve seen signs supporting I-638 out in the suburbs and rural areas. I hoped that enough of Washington’s progressives throughout the state would rally to defeat it, but unfortunately, they missed the mark.”
Provisions
The problems with this initiative are immense. Even though it claims to “protect” cisgender girls from having to compete with Transgender girls in school athletics, the reality is that it will cause more harm and hurdles when it comes to allowing girls – cis and Trans – to participate in school sports.
In the very description of IL26-638, it states that the measure will “require verification of biological sex by students’ healthcare providers.” The explanatory statement written by the Office of the Attorney General adds: “Students who want to participate in interschool sports teams or individual events that are designated for female students only would have to provide a form that verifies the student’s ‘biological sex.’ That form must be signed by the student’s personal health care provider. The verification would have to be based on the student’s reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels. Students would thus have to undergo some medical evaluation of their sex to participate in interschool sports designated for female students only.”
Manton believes that one reason for the initiative’s success comes from the intentionally confusing wording on the ballot itself. “The question was purposefully written to confuse voters, and wasn’t as straightforward as I-001 or the Millionaires' Tax repeal,” she said. “I think plenty of folks who feel strongly about this issue sat out this election, feeling that Washington was a safe, blue brick wall. If anything, it’s more an indictment of those that think living in a safe state means their role in democracy isn’t important. Democracy isn’t just a governing system. It’s a thing you do, you take part in, in order to keep society as a whole functioning.”
“Let’s call this ballot initiative what it is. I-638 is a collection of scary words meant to energize conservative voters in a sad attempt to repeal the millionaires’ tax. Let’s celebrate for a moment that their plan didn’t work,” Clere said. “You think these people actually care about grade school intramural girls’ sports? They don’t. They care only about showing girls at a young age that other people get to decide if they’re ‘girl enough.’ They seek to define womanhood, so they can own womanhood and sell it back to us for the low, low price of our freedoms.”
Effects
Despite the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association reporting only around ten Trans children across the state participating in school sports, this policy will police up to 200,000 girls who participate in school athletics in Washington each year by requiring them to undergo a medical evaluation. This initiative will make it harder for girls from low-income families, in the foster care system, or whose parents don’t have the time to schedule an additional doctor’s appointment to play sports.
“To me, the most legally dubious aspect is how [IL26-638] compels girls’ families to pay for invasive exams that boys’ families don’t have to pay for,” Clere said. “Without insurance, these exams can cost upwards of a thousand dollars. Can the state mandate girls pay to play when boys play the same sports for free? We had a saying for that back in Kentucky: that dog don’t hunt.”
“This initiative aimed at ‘protecting girls’ is only going to discourage girls, cis and Trans, from engaging in school sports,” Manton added.
Stigma
Although the rhetoric of the initiative’s campaign claims to be “protecting girls in sports,” the core issue isn’t around girls’ athletics: IL26-638 aims to stigmatize and demonize Transgender girls and women. Following the abysmal results of the 2024 election, Democrats across the country began to pivot away from their support for Transgender issues. Even though Trans athletes make up a small minority in all fifty states, prohibiting them from participating in girls’ sports has become a particularly relevant talking point for both Republicans and Democrats.
In between comments about pressing issues facing nearly all Americans, such as the surging prices of gas and groceries, an increase in food recalls, and a growing concern for food and drug safety, Democratic talking points continued to come back to Trans girls in sports.
On Wednesday, September 9, Senate hopeful James Talarico made an appearance on Fox News where he said, “As a former public school teacher, I care a lot about our student athletes. I care a lot about our students. And so I will oppose Trans athletes playing in girls’ sports if it risks safety or fairness.”
Talarico isn’t the only one who has embraced anti-Trans ideology. Candidates Amy Acton, Don Davis, Annie Andrews, Marcy Kaptur, and Aaron Ford also expressed anti-Trans sentiment throughout their campaigns, focusing on girls’ sports. On Tuesday night, they all won.
“If I had to guess what changed, at some point I think our nation reached fatigue on the Trans rights issues Republicans spent so much money and energy pushing. The more Republicans pushed, the more public opinion shifted,” Clere said. “MAGA wore the country down on this issue and shifted public opinion. It didn’t help that Democrats spent the entire campaign capitulating on Trans rights. Some Democrats across the country eeven ended up running anti-Trans ads themselves to try and chase more votes. If the vote were held a year ago, I guarantee it would have failed.”
Fighting
Despite the disappointing results on Tuesday night, local activist groups and LGBTQIA+ community members and supporters aren’t willing to let the new policies go into effect without a fight.
“The ACLU of Washington is strong in its commitment to protecting Transgender Washingtonians and is exploring all potential next steps to uphold the rights of Transgender girls and their access to school sports,” LaVendrick Smith, media and communications strategist with the Washington ACLU, said to the SGN. “While every vote is counted, we are closely watching ballot returns. Regardless of the result, it will always be true that laws that target Transgender girls for discrimination only serve to spread stigma and foster bullying.”
Clere echoed Smith’s determination. “I have a fire lit under me. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Washingtonians, it’s that when there’s a fight to be had, they don’t quit,” she said. “The initiative will almost certainly be challenged in the courts, and short of an egregious miscarriage of justice, I really don’t see a path forward for it after that. The initiative at its core is unfair and disproportionately targets girls, and it opens so many doors which should never be opened.”
“I know it’ll be challenged in the courts, and likely stymied for the next several months, if not years,” Manton added. “It’s blatant discrimination based on gender identity. Washington’s constitution, through its Equal Rights Amendment, states ‘Equality of rights and responsibility under the law shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex.’ I-638 is not only bigoted, it’s unconstitutional, and I expect this to reach the US Supreme Court. By that time, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a measure to repeal it in the 2028 ballot.”
Impact and resolve
It was never about the girls. This measure is just another way that Republicans and Democrats alike can vilify the Trans community as a bogeyman to unite their bases.
The impact of I-638, even as judicial experts, activists, and lawmakers attempt to repeal it, will be devastating to Washington’s Trans youth. “To put it bluntly, I think this bill will lead to Trans kids not growing up to be Trans adults,” Manton said.
As someone who grew up playing sports, Manton was often bullied for her Queer identities, even before she came out as Trans. “I was regularly ostracized by my teams in sports for being one of the only openly Bi kids in my area. The social pressure alone took a toll on me. That kind of pressure coming from not just your classmates but the state as a whole is going to add to the mental health stresses that Trans teens are already going through. To say this was a failure for Trans kids is an understatement. It’s a slap in the face by a state that prides itself on being progressive and accepting.”
Both parties spent the last election cycle sacrificing the small minority that is the Transgender community to win over larger swaths of moderate voters through fear tactics and manipulation. The result has been a devastating message to the Trans community of Washington, one that Smith and activists across the state are now working hard to erase.
“Transgender people are our neighbors, colleagues, friends and family, and like everyone, they have the right to live and play in our communities as their true selves,” Smith said.
“To the young Trans kids who read the Seattle Gay News, just know there are a whole lot of adults out there who aren’t going to back down for you,” Manton said. “I can hit you with a ‘it gets better,’ but that’s pretty hack at this point. So I’ll paraphrase some wisdom from Queer elders long before me: ‘There are two important things to remember… The first is that we will get our asses kicked. The second is that we will win’ (from The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions). Hold that in your hearts, and keep being the only person you were meant to be, you.”
“It is my hope the only impact this initiative has is to show Washington that it’s time to codify LGBTQIA+ protections into law and even our constitution,” Clere added. “My hope is that it wakes us up to the fragility of our rights and that, yes, our rights can absolutely be slashed by big-money interests if we fall asleep at the wheel. This needs to be the moment that steals our resolve.”
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