What's at stake: voters to decide on girls' sports issue this November

When you vote this November, you will see three statewide initiatives, among them, I-638. It is an issue that supporters call common sense, but opponents argue it marginalizes a small group of transgender athletes.

The initiative, if passed, would add a few sections to existing state law.

The part getting the most attention says that:

"...a school district board of directors or a voluntary nonprofit entity must prohibit biologically male students from competing with and against female students in athletic activities with separate classifications for male and female students if the athletic activity is:

(a) Intended for female students only; and

(b) An individual or team competition activity"

The initiative also requires that a student who wants to play on a girls-only sports team have, as part of the "required routine sports physical examination," a signed form by their "personal health care provider that verifies the student's biological sex."

Under the initiative, the athlete's sex can be verified using one or more of the following: "the student's reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup or normal endogenously produced testosterones levels."

If the initiative does pass, Washington would join 27 other states with a similar law.

Frances Staudt is a senior at Tumwater High School and a three-sport athlete. She plays basketball, softball, and runs track.

"I don't want any other girl to have to go through what I went through," she said.

In her sophomore year, her basketball team was playing against a team that had a transgender student playing on it. Staudt decided to sit out of that game.

"Walking through the hallways and having people laughing at you just because you spoke up and didn't want to play against a man, I don't want any other girl to have to deal with that," she said.

Staudt said for her, it is a safety issue.

"Because girls can get hurt, and I mean as guys, if you look at the anatomy, guys are built different than girls, and that's a fact," she said. "It's safety because girls should not have a man in their locker room; that can be a safety issue too."

Staudt said even with the number of transgender athletes participating in girls' sports being small, it can still have a large impact.

"One is one too many," she said. "One trans athlete on the other team is affecting a whole team of girls and affecting a whole locker room or bathroom of girls."

As far as the certification needed under the initiative to play girls' sports, Staudt said she does not believe the wording in the initiative lends itself to an "invasive genital check."

"That is not the case. (Opponents are) saying that to scare people and to make them say, 'wait a minute, maybe this isn't a good idea,' but this is going to help the athletes," she said. "It's lies. They're spreading lies about this to do anything that they can to make it to where people will vote 'no.' But we need people to vote 'yes.'"

"I'm really disappointed and disgusted to see this on the ballot in Washington state," Lauren Hipp, mom of two girls, said. "This really flies in the face of how we raise our kids."

Hipp has three kids, including two elementary-age girls; she said she hopes the passage of this initiative is never anything she has to explain to them.

"I think the reason that we have our kids in sports is so that they can experience a sport with their peers and people in their community," she said. "These are kids that they're in relationship with, they're their friends, they're people that they love, and we shouldn't be exclusionary in who's able to play these sports."

She added that she is "not worried" about her kids being in a position where their peers are better than them.

"In any activity you participate in, whether that's a sport or any other activity, you always have people around you who may be better than you at one aspect," Hipp said. "That is part of life and growing and frustration tolerance and learning how to be competitive in healthy ways."

Hipp does worry, though, about wording in the initiative that she believes could lead to genital checks of young female athletes.

"This does not have a plausible explanation. We don't know who would be doing these exams, and subjecting girls and women to this is just an attack on bodily autonomy and their own self determination of their identity," Hipp said.

If the initiative does pass, Hipp said she believes it could end up being a "huge barrier for thousands of girls to participate in sports." She notes boys wanting to play sports would not need to go through the same sort of certification of their sex.

"We're putting the burden on girls (who want to play sports) as a justification for this witch-hunt to find trans girls who want to play sports with their friends," she said. "It's really incredibly unfair."

In fact, Hipp said she does not believe that this initiative is about girls' safety at all.

"I think the way they're talking about it is very tricky and not exactly truthful of what they're going to require of girls and women," she said.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) does not maintain a "definitive count" of transgender student athletes, a spokesperson said, because "transgender students are not identified by state law, therefore no defined quantities exist."

The WIAA currently has guidance that says "all students should have the opportunity to participate in WIAA athletics and/or activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity." However, a spokesperson writes that the association is "committed to following Washington state law," and will continue to do so, should it change after this November's election.

"If state law changes, the WIAA's Executive Board has the authority to alter the Association's policies to remain aligned with state law. This is consistent with the language the WIAA Office has shared with the Association's membership dating back to August 2024. If statewide initiative I-638 passes this fall and changes state law, the WIAA Executive Board will review the Association’s gender-identity participation policies and make any necessary adjustments to rules."

The election is on November 3. Ballots will be mailed out on October 16.