This year's midterm election was a proud day for Trans people across the nation, with many Transgender candidates elected as state representatives, including Washington’s own Jaelyn Scott. 

Despite these huge wins, the community suffered a major loss in this state with the passage of Initiative 638, which will restrict Transgender girls from competing on K-12 girls’ sports teams and also force female students to medically certify their sex in order to participate in sports. 

Less than a day after the initiative’s apparent passage, about a hundred people, holding signs and bearing Trans Pride flags, gathered under the bright lights of Westlake Park to voice their displeasure. The protest was organized by the Gender Equity Movement and featured many Trans speakers, including Gender Justice League cofounder Elayne Wylie, who gave an impassioned speech. She declared that Initiative 638 would be dismantled in a court of law, breaking a pencil in half to illustrate her point that 638 is vulnerable to being overturned by the stroke of a pen.

After the speeches concluded, protesters took to the streets to march, including a brass band serenading participants with various power anthems and protest medleys. The crowd marched to Pike Place Market, chanting slogans such as “638 is Trans hate, DO BETTER WASHINGTON STATE!” The march made a stop at Pike Street to join in a group performance of "No One Is Getting Left Behind (This Time)" by Joshua Blaine, in a show of solidarity with the Trans community, before returning to Westlake Park for a stage performance of the aforementioned brass band to close out the event.

The fight to repeal 638 has just begun, with the next stop being the Supreme Court of Washington, to argue the unconstitutional nature of the measure's enforcement. 

“I’m hoping that this is going to be thrown out in the courts,” said Ashley Ford of the Seattle LGBTQ Commission. “638 I think has really … shown us that there are a lot of gaps within our organizing infrastructure, so I’m hoping that we see organization popping up. I hope that we see people mobilizing, and I really hope that we see people stepping up, so that this stuff doesn’t happen again in Washington.”

GJL recently put out a statement highlighting its work with coalition partners to challenge 638 in the courts and calling upon the Democratic Party, civil rights organizations, and their donors to fund Trans-led organizations between elections, invest in messaging research, and place Trans people’s stories and experiences in front of voters.

“This initiative was sold as being about a handful of Trans kids,” said GJL executive director and cofounder Danni Askini, “but what it actually does is subject every girl who plays school sports in this state to a medical sex check before they can put on a jersey. Washington’s constitution does not allow the government to search a child’s body without an extremely compelling reason. We intend to ask the courts to reaffirm the privacy of all girls in Washington to live free from potentially embarrassing and humiliating exams of their body.”