Two sisters and W.F. West High School student-athletes took center stage during a special legislative listening session at the state Capitol on Tuesday afternoon.
The sessions, backed by Republican lawmakers and initiative backers, were designed to hear feedback on two Let’s Go Washington initiatives that ruling Democrats will not allow to receive official hearings in the Legislature this year.
Joy and Drees Cushman were the first two members of the public to testify at a listening session on the Capitol campus Tuesday evening.
The two Lewis County athletes testified specifically in support of IL26-638 — an initiative that calls for the state to bar athletes assigned male at birth from participating in girls sports.
The Cushman sisters — Joy, a 17-year-old junior, and Drees, a 15-year-old freshman — equated support of IL26-638 to support for their rights as athletes and, more broadly, women's rights, equality and protecting fairness in girls sports in public schools.
“This is about fairness and women's rights,” Joy said at the end of her testimony. “I've said this before, but don't say you stand for empowering young women if your rules won't protect my opportunities.”
The two young athletes both compete in girls basketball at W.F. West while Joy is also a W.F. West track team member.
Many others who testified throughout the evening similarly linked the initiative to taking a stand on women's rights and compared it to the country’s landmark Title IX policy established in 1972, which barred any discrimination on the basis of sex.
Title IX is widely seen as responsible for allowing the development of women's sports in public schools and other venues.
Mead High School Track and Cross Country coach Dori Whitford from Spokane testified during the session, saying that while title IX made sports more accessible for her generation, she was now seeing the opposite happen.
“I rolled in on Title IX,” Whitford said. “I just rolled through. I had no idea, and what I’m seeing now is the opposite.”
During the session, the Cushman sisters both shared what they view as insurmountable physical advantages that biological males who identify as transgender hold over them, highlighting differences between their development.
Joy pushed back against the idea that hormone therapy can even the playing field. Hormone blockers and other hormone therapy are often used by youth with gender dysmorphia to prevent them from going through the physical development of puberty.
Her sister, Drees, during her time with the microphone compared her physical abilities to that of the male athletes in her same age and academic level, stating that while she is significantly taller than most of them, her male peers are consistently faster and stronger than her. Accordering to her testimony, Drees already stands tall at 6 feet and 2 inches tall.
The W.F. West athletes were given the first opportunity to testify so they could make their way back south to W.F. West High School in time for a district matchup against Shelton, which they won handily, 65-21.
After their time speaking, other athletes — including Tumwater High School's Frances Staudt — parents and coaches testified in support of the initiative.
The hearing was also a chance for supporters to testify on IL26-001, which calls for the state to restore provisions in the so-called “parents bill of rights,” which was itself originally an initiative before being passed into law by the Washington state Legislature in 2024. However, a year later, in 2025, the Democrat-controlled Legislature amended the parents bill of rights to remove provisions, such as a parent's guaranteed right to view a child's medical records.
Republicans held the so-called “listening sessions” as a sort of unofficial legislative committee public hearing after state Democrats in both the Senate and the House said they would not schedule hearings for either initiative, instead sending them to voters to approve or oppose in the general election.
State Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima and state Sens. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, and Shelly Short, R-Addy served as hosts and facilitators during the unofficial hearing.
Republicans have repeatedly condemned that decision, citing language in the state's Constitution that calls for the Legislature to give priority to citizen initiatives. In a Republican-led press conference the morning of Feb. 4, hours ahead of the afternoon listening sessions, House Minority leader Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, argued that holding hearings for the initiatives would at least show that they were considered.
“We think a really easy way to do that is to hold hearings,” Stokesbary said. “Democrats disagree, but they won't suggest any other way these initiatives can take precedence over the rest of our business, even if we end up not passing them and sending them to the ballot.”
During that same media availability, Stokesbary emphasized that his party invited groups known to oppose the two initiatives to hear from multiple sides of the issue as in a normal committee hearing. Stokesbary said his caucus had invited state Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, the ACLU, the Gender Justice League, Planned Parenthood and more.
But, regardless of their intentions or efforts, opponents to the initiatives did not materialize. All testimony during two listening sessions, which each gave time for comment on both initiatives, featured only testimony in support of the two policies.
According to reporting by The Washington State Standard, groups opposed to the initiatives being proposed already voiced their concerns with the policies on Monday. Groups like the Gender Justice League reportedly cited concerns over the impacts on transgender youth and argued that at least one of the initiatives may be a violation of privacy and therefore unconstitutional under state law.
The first of the two sessions held at 4:30 p.m. was also held not long after a rally held on the steps of the Washington state Capitol in support of the two initiatives. Let’s Go Washington, a political group funded by hedge fund founder Brian Heywood that has become known for collecting signatures for citizens' initiatives aligning with conservative values, sponsored the rally ahead of the afternoon listening sessions.
Some well known supporters of the two initiatives, including former broadcast journalist turned podcaster and political commentator Brandi Kruse, spoke during the more than an hour-long rally ahead of time. Upwards of 150 supporters covered the steps with signs urging support for the two initiatives.
