Washington state is voting on Initiative I-638, which would bar students classified as male at birth from competing in school events designated for girls only. The measure affects not only the handful of transgender girls at the center of public debate, but also participation rules for thousands of schoolgirls: to play on a girls’ team or compete in a girls’ category, they would need a health care provider to verify their “biological sex.” The decision will be made on November 3.
At the track at Lakewood High School in the Arlington area of northern Snohomish County, the debate over laws and definitions seems almost impossibly far away. What matters here is the stopwatch, the damp autumn air, the team waiting at the finish line, and the brief effort after which a teenager tries to catch her breath. Yet school sports—cross-country, track and field, basketball, swimming—have become the setting for Washington’s campaign to address one of its most contentious questions: what does fairness mean when children and sports are involved?
Under the current rules of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which governs most interscholastic competitions, students may participate in programs consistent with their gender identity or the gender they consistently express. This policy has been in place in the state for nearly two decades. Once a school determines an athlete’s eligibility to compete in the chosen category, that eligibility remains in effect for as long as the athlete participates in that sport and does not need to be renewed annually.
I-638 would end this approach for competitions with separate boys’ and girls’ categories. The initiative’s text requires school districts and voluntary nonprofit sports organizations to bar from girls’ competitions students it defines as “biologically male.” A girl seeking a place on a girls’ team or entry in a girls’ event would have to submit a sex-verification statement signed by her doctor or other treating health care provider. The document says verification may be based on reproductive anatomy, genetic information, or endogenous testosterone levels.
Supporters call the initiative a restoration of the boundaries on which girls’ sports were originally built. Their argument is simple—and therefore politically powerful: separate competitions for girls were created to ensure they had fair opportunities, scholarships, team spots, and recognition for their achievements. In their view, the state must enshrine these categories in law rather than leave them to the discretion of school administrators and sports associations.
Opponents counter that the initiative targets an extremely small number of children in practice, while creating a new medical hurdle for everyone who wants to play on a girls’ team. WIAA has estimated that only a handful of transgender girls participate in school sports statewide. Pediatricians, educators, and advocates also point to uncertainty about how the law would work in practice: exactly what kind of verification would be required, who would pay for it, and how schools would handle students’ confidential medical information.
The initiative was filed in summer 2025 and gathered enough signatures to go first to the state Legislature. In spring 2026, lawmakers neither passed it nor rejected it as a bill, so the question automatically went onto the general election ballot. That matters for the campaign: this is not a proposal that could still be rewritten in committees in Olympia, but a specific measure that will become law if approved.
In April, WIAA considered options for changing its own rules, including a separate open category, but its representatives acknowledged that proposals conflicting with state law could not simply be adopted through a vote by the sports association. I-638 thus became a way for both sides to resolve an issue that school officials and lawmakers either could not—or did not want to—settle. Even after the vote, the conflict is unlikely to end: opponents of the measure are already talking about possible lawsuits over equal protection, medical privacy, and Washington’s anti-discrimination laws.
By evening, the school field still follows the familiar, almost stubborn logic of youth sports: someone wins a medal, someone loses by a fraction of a second, parents gather jackets and empty water bottles. But on November 3, voters will decide whether these familiar competitions will continue under the rules Washington has known since 2007, or under a new law that makes eligibility a matter of medical documentation and a statewide political choice.
Based on: I-638: What’s at stake as WA votes on trans girls’ participation in youth sports