Washington's reputation as a stronghold for LGBTQ+ rights dimmed Thursday, advocates said, as a ballot initiative aimed at barring transgender girls from competing in girls K-12 school sports secured enough yes" votes to pass.
Leaders in the LGBTQ+ community and civil rights defenders say the results stand in stark contrast to the nationwide rebuke of Republicans and President Donald Trump on Tuesday, when Democrats won control of the U.S. House and Senate.
As of Thursday, about 57% of ballots favored Initiative 638, which rolls back a longstanding statewide policy that allows transgender students to participate on the sports teams that align with their gender identity. Tens of thousands of ballots have yet to be counted, but opponents of the initiative have conceded the gap is likely too great to overcome.
The initiative applies only to girls interscholastic sports, and requires all students who want to participate in girls athletics to submit medical documentation verifying their “biological sex.” This documentation must come from an examination or provider’s confirmation of the student’s “reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels,” according to the initiative’s language.
Proponents of Initiative 638 have argued transgender girls participation in girls athletics is unfair to cisgender girls, and that the law would not require any new, additional medical exams.
Health providers have said the language used in the initiative is imprecise and vague, and that the verification described in the ballot measure is not a part of a typical sports physical.
On Thursday evening, community members, some carrying transgender pride flags, gathered at Westlake Park in Downtown Seattle to decry the results of the initiative before marching west along Pine Street, playing music and chanting, "638 is trans hate."
Evan Gortner, 24, grew up playing high school soccer and softball in Bellevue. He said he was part of a group of students who helped develop the state guidelines for trans athletes about eight or nine years ago.
“The fact that we’re now in a place in the liberal bastion of Washington where we have the most extreme trans sports ban is a crazy 180 from what I helped build,” he said.
Now, Gortner hopes the initiative can be overturned.
“I want to get it back to what we all built, where we had trans and cis athletes and parents all in the room, and we all talked it out, and that's how this should be addressed," Gortner said. "Not a billionaire paying millions upon millions of dollars to change the rules for everybody else."
I-638 was backed by Let's Go Washington, a conservative political committee founded by Redmond hedge fund manager Brian Heywood. Two other initiatives the group supported in the November election — one to repeal Washington's so-called "millionaires tax" and another to modify parental rights in public schools — lost.
Celebrating the victory of I-638, Heywood said in a statement Thursday, "We saw the ugliest side of the opposition during this campaign: grown adults bullying young girls, spreading lies about the initiative. ...
"This vote is a testament that that evil will not win in our state," he said.
Let’s Go Washington spent about $4 million to support its three initiatives. No Hate in Washington State, which opposed the ban on trans girls participating in girls sports and the parents rights modification initiative, spent a similar amount.
Both those campaigns’ spending were eclipsed by the campaign against the "millionaires tax" repeal, which raised roughly $13 million, largely from public sector labor unions.
Some rally attendees Thursday voiced concerns that Democratic leaders and elected officials did not do enough to ensure I-638's defeat, and urged newly elected leaders to stand up for trans people.
Gov. Bob Ferguson acknowledged Wednesday during a news conference that while he opposed I-638, he campaigned far more aggressively against the attempted repeal of the "millionaires tax," saying "I've got to focus my time on where I think I can have the biggest impact."
Washington was one of four states where voters considered similar bans on trans girls participating in girls sports. Voters in those three other states, Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska, also approved the bans in Tuesday's election.
Washington’s measure was considered the most restrictive because it required girls to prove their “biological sex” through physical examinations or hormone or genetic testing.
At Thursday's rally in Downtown Seattle, community members said conservative politicians were using trans youth athletes as a wedge to avoid addressing the urgent cost of living challenges people face.
“Gas has climbed over $6 a gallon in some places. Groceries have doubled in price. Medical care remains … expensive," said Ivanna Jovanović, an organizer with the Puget Sound division of the American Party of Labor, during the rally.
“And then, they have the audacity to distract us with their transphobic, moral panic bills where they ask permission to inspect children naked before they can play sports in schools,” she said.
Barring trans girls from participating in girls sports has become a major priority for conservatives in recent years, who argue such bans promote fairness and safety for women’s athletics. Nationwide, 27 states have passed laws preventing trans students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity.
LGBTQ+ advocates argue that these measures target an already marginalized population that make up a minuscule number of student athletes. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which oversees middle and high school sports, says it is aware of no more than 10 transgender athletes competing each year out of an overall number of approximately 225,000 student athletes.
Opponents of I-638 have said efforts to guarantee trans girls’ participation in girls sports is part of a larger push to ensure transgender people are accepted and protected in society. They say many of the questions raised by these bans touch on key fundamental trans rights issues, including access to healthcare, government documents and locker rooms and bathrooms that align with a person’s gender identity.
For years, Washington state has afforded a number of protections for trans people. As anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment and policy escalates nationwide, Washington has been considered by some to be a haven for transgender and gender-diverse people, many of whom have moved to the state in recent years in search of safety and belonging.
But many Washington-based LGBTQ+ advocates raised concerns back in 2024 that those rights would become vulnerable under a second Trump administration, a conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court and a torrent of anti-trans political spending. The Supreme Court ruled this summer states can exclude transgender athletes from women’s and girls sports teams.
Questions remain about how the initiative will be executed and enforced. How the verification requirements will impact girls’ participation in athletics is also unclear. Girls already lose their sense of belonging in sports at more than twice the rate of boys through adolescence, according to a 2026 Women’s Sports Foundation report.
Zoe Mason, 28, of Seattle, was dressed in pink and sporting a blue bandanna to represent the colors of the trans pride flag. She said the initiative is an attempt to “legislate trans people out of existence.”
“I hope the ACLU sues, she said. “We have the Equal Rights Amendment. This is just a fundamental, unconstitutional law.
Initiative 638 will likely face a legal challenge, as civil rights groups warn the policy could run afoul of both the state constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment and the Washington Law Against Discrimination.
In a statement Thursday, ACLU of Washington executive director Michele Storms said the initiative “cements discrimination into law and denies an entire group of students opportunities shared by their peers simply because of who they are.”
“This is a devastating blow to our state’s history of inclusivity and belonging, and our collective goal of making Washington a place where all children can thrive,” Storms said in a statement.
Libby Watson, campaign manager of No Hate in Washington State, said in a statement Wednesday that while the results are disappointing, voters in Washington and across the country “rejected candidates up and down the ballot who made trans sports bans the centerpiece of their campaigns.”
“To all trans girls participating in school sports in Washington, we want you to know that you belong: on the field, on the court, on the team,” Watson said Wednesday. “We stand with you and will continue to fight for a day when you can play sports without controversy.”
Notably, Jaelynn Scott made history Tuesday as the first openly trans person elected to the Washington State Legislature, and the first out Black trans state lawmaker in the country. Scott is the executive director of the Black trans advocacy organization the Lavender Rights Project.
Material from The Seattle Times archives was used in this report.
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