An initiative to end discrimination against young girls in sports will be voted on this November in Washington state. 

Washington Initiative 638, the Sex Verification Requirements for Female School Sports Initiative, would require school districts and certain nonprofit organizations to “prohibit biologically male students from competing with and against female students” in athletics with separate teams or individual competitions for male and female students. The ballot initiative would also require document verification from a health care provider certifying “the student’s biological sex [based on] ... reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels” for students who wish to participate in female sports.

This is the first voter referendum of its type in Washington, which has Democratic leadership and is home to Seattle, one of the most progressive cities in America. Polling from August 2026 conducted by the political action committee Let’s Go Washington revealed that the initiative has strong support among voters. The organization found that 56% of respondents are in favor of protecting girls’ sports. According to Washington Senate Joint Resolution 5, the state requires a simple majority’s approval to be enacted, Ballotpedia reported.

“Policies that threaten safety, privacy, and parental rights while promoting transgender ideology do not represent what most families believe or want for their children,” Alleigh Marré, executive director of the American Parents Coalition, told The Washington Stand. “The majority of Americans believe sports and private spaces should be defined by biological sex, not radical ideology. From the classroom to the sports fields, political activism has no place in our children’s lives.” 

Washington state Rep. Joel McEntire (R) told The Daily Wire that the initiative on the ballot in Washington to protect female athletes and other direct referendums on parental rights and removing income tax are common sense. “They’re so common sense that it’s hard to find anyone who disagrees with them. So naturally, the Democrats, because this is partisan in nature, Democrats have told their people to vote ‘no’ on these things. ‘No, no, no’ is what they’ve told their constituents.” 

Polling shows most Americans do not believe men should be allowed to compete in girls’ sports. The New York Post reported last year that 79% of 2,128 people surveyed felt this way. Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaned Democrat who took the survey, 67% said biological male athletes should not be allowed to compete with women. The Post also found that among 1,022 Republicans, 94% believe men should be kept out of women’s sports. Sixty-four percent of Independents also agreed.

“If you’re in Texas, if you’re in Georgia, if you’re in Ohio, if you’re in a state where Democrats are trying to make their plays back, and they get control, what they’re doing in Washington state is exactly the same spirit of policy that Democrats nationwide want to enact, and they will enact it there too,” McEntire continued. “And you’ll fall behind in your educational standards if you allow the Democrats to have this kind of control in other states — like they have in Washington. So beware.” 

So far, 27 states have laws ensuring a level playing field for female athletes. Twenty-one states have no such laws or regulations. In the states of Arizona, Idaho, Utah, and West Virginia, court rulings have blocked laws from requiring sex verification. In Alaska and Virginia, state regulations or agency policies protecting girls’ sports are in place.

This comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 to reinforce Title IX, stopping all federal funding from going to programs that do not comply. The “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports Order” declared, “Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”