On the last day of Pride month, the US Supreme Court upheld state laws in 27 states banning trans girls from participating in youth sports.  That means that, under the US Constitution and Title IX, these states are allowed to discriminate against trans kids playing sports. Though the ruling doe s not require the remaining states to pass similar bans, federal law does not prevent them from doing so. Washingtonians will soon have an opportunity to decide whether our state should follow the same path. Let’s Go Washington’s Initiative IL26-638, which is slated to appear on ballots statewide as part of the November 2026 General Election and is spearheaded by the group’s millionaire hedge-fund-managing leader, Brian Heywood, mandates that “students compete in athletic activities consistent with the gender assigned at birth.” If approved by voters this November, it would overturn Washington’s longstanding, trans-inclusive school sports policy, and ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports.  As part of the team that challenged Idaho’s ban, we at Legal Voice are now urging Washington voters to reject an effort to pass our state’s own ban. Once you take a cursory look at how these laws work, you soon realize that they don’t just target transgender athletes. In practice, they threaten the well-being and dignity of all women and girls.  To determine who is a “real” girl, children in Washington’s K-12 schools could be subjected to genital examinations. That means putting children as young as 11 or 12 through an invasive process just because they want to compete in a sport or play with their friends.   It should be obvious: Children should not be required to have a medical provider look at or touch their genitals just to participate in school sports. The only alternative is genetic or hormone testing, expensive lab work that gathers sensitive medical information. These requirements may be enough to dissuade countless girls and their families from even trying to join a team at their school.  Laws like these are designed to divide communities by falsely painting trans girls as dangerous or possessing some magic testosterone-laden power that gives them an unfair advantage, despite the science stating otherwise.   For an idea of what this could look like, look to Florida. After the state passed its anti-trans sports ban, police investigated a 15-year-old junior varsity volleyball player  after an anonymous caller reported to the athlete’s school that she was trans. Local officials compiled a 500-page report detailing her medical history, body weight, and anatomy. Facing immense pressure from both law enforcement and the county school board, she ultimately withdrew from school and enrolled online.  Idaho’s ban provides another warning. That law allows coaches, parents, and even spectators to dispute the sex of students participating on girls’ and women’s teams.   Legal Voice, along with the ACLU and Cooley LLP, sued Idaho to block that law. We saw the case as a critical component of our decades-long effort to expand access to women’s athletics. Our first case, filed in 1979, secured equal access to sports facilities and programs in Washington State, and we’ve since gone on to advocate for girls’ and women’s teams across the Northwest.  In our challenge to Idaho’s trans athlete ban, we argued that the law violated equal protection guarantees by discriminating against athletes on female teams while imposing no comparable requirements on athletes participating on male teams. The lower courts agreed and blocked enforcement against our client before the case, Little v. Hecox, reached the US Supreme Court.  The Court’s recent decision in Hecox makes it easier for states to discriminate against transgender youth in sports and will embolden the legislative and cultural effort to push trans people out of public life, and the broader political project to police gender. They also send the message that some young people deserve participation and belonging while others must prove they are worthy of inclusion. Come November, Washington voters will face a question that is much larger than sports. Will we continue Washington’s tradition of equal opportunity and inclusion, or will we embrace a policy that excludes transgender youth while inviting invasive scrutiny of all girls?   Wielding youth sports, an important rite of passage into community life, as a weapon in Washington would exclude transgender girls and subject all girls and women to invasive scrutiny—risking greater privacy violations, discrimination, and harm for the very athletes it claims to protect.  Washington can choose the right path and protect the dignity of every child.  Tiffani Lennon is the executive director of Legal Voice, a Seattle-based nonprofit that fights for gender justice through impact litigation, policy advocacy, education, and coalition building. Legal Voice was counsel for Lindsay Hecox in Little v. Hecox.  The post The Ballot Initiative to Ban Trans Girls from Sports in Washington Will Threaten All Women and Girls appeared first on The Stranger. ...read more read less