SEATTLE — The future of transgender athletes in Washington is unclear following an executive order that coincides with Republican-backed efforts to change the state's long-standing policy allowing student athletes to participate consistent with their gender identity.
The order, signed by President Donald Trump on Feb. 5, intends to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports by restricting participation to people assigned female at birth.
Some national governing bodies have already adjusted. The NCAA announced Thursday that transgender women would no longer be eligible to compete in women's sports. But the impact of the executive order at the interscholastic level is currently unclear and may vary by state.
Washington has a 17-year-old state rule that ensures equal access to middle and high school sports for transgender students.
Democrats in Olympia have spent the early weeks of the legislative session moving to set that and other protections for transgender students into state law. But Republicans have also introduced legislation regarding transgender athletes.
And, some school districts have proposed potentially unlawful amendments regarding the state's athletic governing body that would create a new category for transgender students or an outright ban on anyone not assigned female at birth playing girls' sports.
Challenges to state rules
The Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association is the governing athletic body for nearly 800 public and private schools in the state. So, when school district officials started to debate in 2007 how to include transgender students in school sports, they turned to the association.
A group of attorneys, LGBTQ+ advocates, athletic directors and association staff heard proposals for extensive processes involving hormone testing and mental health care from specialized providers, according to Aidan Key, the director of transgender advocacy organization Gender Diversity, who was among the group that helped develop the policy.
Ultimately, the association opted for a simple and first-of-its-kind policy — students would be allowed to compete in the category consistent with their gender identity. This meant if a transgender girl wanted to play soccer, she would play on the girls' soccer team. If a transgender boy wanted to swim competitively, he would swim with the boys.
If someone challenged a student's right to compete, the association would establish a committee to review the challenge.
"Kudos to the (Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association) for recognizing a need when the issue was hardly on the radar for anyone," Key said.
He noted the issue affected a small number of students at the time, and still does. The athletic association is currently aware of five transgender student athletes in the state, according to Executive Director Mick Hoffman, though it is possible there are more.
The only challenge to the policy occurred in 2024 when a transgender girl won the 2A state title in the 400-meter run.
Still, the policy is being criticized by some interscholastic-level parents and athletes, who say they are concerned about safety and fairness.
Their complaints have been magnified by conservative media and a successful presidential campaign that stoked fears and promised to roll back protections and rights for transgender people.
Leaders react to order
Top leaders across Washington were quick to denounce Trump's executive order, though none have been able to say what it means for the state.
The Attorney General's Office advised the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association and other state-level athletic bodies to seek legal advice regarding the executive order.
"We are repulsed by the president's dehumanization of the trans community. This and other orders are clearly part of the administration's larger plan to strip away civil rights across society," Mike Faulk, deputy communications director in the Attorney General's Office, said in an email.
A member of Gov. Bob Ferguson's staff said the governor's office is reviewing the executive order and is in regular communication with the Attorney General's Office.
"If President Trump unlawfully targets Washingtonians, we will stand up to protect their civil rights," Brionna Aho, Ferguson's director of communications, said in an email Thursday.
In a scathing statement, State Superintendent Chris Reykdal said the executive order was an attempt to override the states' authority and requires schools to "discriminate against trans female athletes in order to receive federal funding,"
Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, said staff and lawyers are looking into the executive order. To Jinkins, the law as it stands "is pretty clear that, in Washington state, you cannot discriminate on the basis of gender identity or gender."
Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Volz, R-Spokane, sent a news release Thursday afternoon praising NCAA President Charlie Barker for his statement that indicated the NCAA would abide by the executive order and platforming state House Bill 1699.
The legislation, sponsored by 26 Republicans, would allow school boards to adopt policies that prohibit transgender girls from participating in girls' sports.
It was filed Jan. 29 and is unlikely to get a hearing, but it's not the first Republican proposal of the session that seeks to ban transgender athletes from competing at the interscholastic level.
Washington Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, and Sen. Shelly Short, R-Addy, said they heard from concerned constituents in 2024, prompting them to draft legislation for this session.
Warnick and Short sponsored Senate Bill 5097, which would require the state athletic association to consider physiological and hormonal variation among athletes, permitting the exclusion of individual athletes "where the competitor would have an unfair advantage based on endocrine characteristics."
Many people who want to limit transgender people from sports say athletes' levels of testosterone or estrogen should be a determinant in whether they are allowed to compete.
However, that has often proved a fraught marker, with several high-profile cases of cisgender women testing at naturally higher levels of testosterone, and murky scientific backing that high testosterone levels necessarily cause better athletic performance.
Dr. Bradley Anawalt, a hormone specialist and professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, cautioned against expecting science to provide clear guidance.
"We need to acknowledge that this is not an area where you can easily come up with a set of rules or that there's going to be broad consensus of what constitutes fair and unfair," Anawalt said.
Democrats propose protections
After receiving Warnick's bill, Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island, chair of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee, contacted the Interscholastic Athletic Association.
She said the association had "addressed the issue well" and decided Warnick's bill will not get a hearing, meaning the legislation will die.
"We've heard from many kids around the country how worried they are about the incoming administration," Wellman said. "We have shown ourselves in many areas to be compassionate, caring, and we want to make sure people feel safe and valued."
Democrats introduced Senate Bill 5180, which would enshrine rights and protection for transgender students beyond athletics.
The bill requires all schools to adopt and enforce "gender-inclusive protections, policies, and procedures" that affirm students' right to be referred to by their chosen pronouns; participate in school-sponsored athletics or activities consistent with their gender identity; use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity; dress in a manner consistent with their gender identity; and that school employees cannot disclose information about a student's gender identity without their explicit consent.
Many of the requirements are lifted from a model transgender student policy that school districts were required to adopt in 2020. However, lawmakers say 5180 is necessary as school districts have claimed they are not obligated to implement certain measures that aren't explicitly written into state law.
Educators, students and organizations that support members of the LGBTQ+ community spoke in favor of the bill, saying that it provides the protections necessary for a safe and welcoming school environment.
"These bills today will make it certain that Washington's protections will apply to our kids. School boards don't legislate, they take an oath to apply state law," said Linden Jordan from PFLAG Skagit during the bill's public hearing last month.
Others testified against the bill.
Joy Cushman, a high school basketball and track athlete from Chehalis, said opportunities are being taken away from people assigned female at birth.
"Women's sports exist so that girls like me can be given equality," Cushman said.
Outside of the Legislature, advocates say the current dialogue about transgender athletes fails to acknowledge that sports are supposed to provide opportunities for kids to be active, stay healthy and engage with their peers.
Schuyler Bailar, the first transgender athlete to compete in any sport on an NCAA Division 1 men's team, said the swimming pool was a sanctuary in the midst of grappling with ostracization by peers and mental health struggles.
"I don't know if I would still be here today, alive and human, if I hadn't had access to my sport. It showed me my own power and gave me a lot of purpose," he said.
Debate among schools
Senate Bill 5180's public hearing was Jan. 21 but it has not been scheduled for an executive session yet. The deadline for bills to pass out of the Senate is March 12.
Outside of the Legislature, 14 school districts have proposed an amendment to the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association's rule that would only allow students who were assigned female at birth to participate in girls' sports at both the middle and high school levels for the 2025-2026 school year.
Another proposed amendment suggested creating a third "open division" for any athlete whose gender identity differs from their assigned sex at birth to compete in.
Each year, school districts have the opportunity to propose amendments to the association handbook of its governing policies if they have the support of their superintendent and at least four other schools.
Language of the amendments was finalized during the association's winter meeting on Jan. 27 but voting will not take place until April.
Thirty-six of the 53 voting members chose to keep the two amendments alive for the April vote, indicating there could be wider support than the districts who proposed the changes.
Hoffman, the association's executive director, said the association's legal team has been advised not to implement any rules that would violate state law. If amendments are passed, they go into effect Aug. 1.
"That's why they're continuing to go through the process, because with what we're seeing back in D.C., and then what could happen in the courts, state law may be required to change in Washington," Hoffman said earlier this month.
At this time, it's unclear how the executive order will affect the athletic association's policies. A statement issued by the association said it remains committed to following state law.
"Until the Association sees full language of the executive order and conducts further legal review, its impact on participation in Washington public schools is unknown. The (Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association) will continue to work with (the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction) and the Attorney General's Office on remaining in compliance with the law," the statement read in part.
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