On Monday, Washington state rejected a proposal to ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports, agonizingly missing the mark by just one vote.
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association needed 60 percent approval — or 32 out of 53 votes — but fell short at 31-22, according to KING-TV.
A second amendment to create an “open division” for transgender and gender-diverse athletes also failed, securing only 24.5 percent (13 out of 53 votes). This would have allowed trans athletes to compete separately.
This outcome is a slap in the face to fairness in girls’ sports. Males competing against girls undermines the essence of competition, to say nothing of safety concerns.
(And that’s not even trying to appeal to basic human biology.)
Girls who dedicate years to training deserve an equal playing field. Trans athletes often retain physical advantages post-transition, skewing the results. Yes, there’s a non-zero chance that the 78th-best male swimmer is suddenly winning multiple NCAA titles as a woman for a reason.
According to The Seattle Times, this specific Washington state issue has been percolating for a few months, after 14 school districts proposed a common sense amendment to the WIAA handbook that would make it so middle school and high school female athletics can only be participated in by actual females.
The WIAA responded with the 2025 amendments. The “open division” was a potential compromise, but it failed to gain traction probably because the toothless idea doesn’t come close to addressing any core root issues with transgenderism.
The failure of the first measure, at least, is undeniably infuriating: Girls’ sports should be grounded in biological reality, not ideological experiments.
Do you approve of an “open” sports division for transgender athletes?
But it’s not all doom and gloom.
The 31-22 vote shows how close the ban came to passing, and in a deep blue state, this is a genuine sliver of hope.
Public sentiment is clearly shifting (just look at the deeply popular platform of protecting women’s sports that President Donald Trump ran on, in part). That 31 voters in progressive Washington supported the ban signals growing skepticism about trans policies in sports.
Sports, as the ultimate meritocracy, is becoming the tipping point for this cultural shift. People are starting to see the inherent unfairness and safety issues that have to be ignored to kneel at the altar of transgenderism.
Compare Washington to any ruby-red Republican state, where such common sense legislation would pass easily. A near-win here shows even liberal areas are reconsidering their allegiance to the “T” part of LGBT.
Advocates for girls’ sports must push forward. The close vote shows momentum, but the battle is far, far, far from over.
And on that note, trans activists may want to take a moment before hailing this as as some sort of victory for their misguided perception of “inclusion” and think about what they’re really celebrating. It all comes at the expense of female athletes seeking fairness, and that should be contemptible for any fair-minded individual.
This failure is a disservice to girls who deserve better. Washington voters missed a chance to protect girls’ sports.
Yet, the one-vote margin is heartening. If deep blue states are this close to change, the tide may genuinely be turning.
The agony of this loss burns, but the near-success hints at a broader awakening — one that may soon restore fairness to girls’ athletics.
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