Arizona approves ballot measure designating sexes to sports teams

A ballot measure that would further restrict transgender people from competing on sports teams or using private spaces like locker rooms that align with their gender identity is projected to pass in Arizona, according to Decision Desk HQ.

Voters approved the ballot measure, otherwise known as Proposition 318, which requires both private and public schools in addition to athletic associations to designate sports teams as male, female or co-ed based on “biological sex” and “to prevent males from joining female teams,” referring to transgender women playing in sports that align with their gender identity.

Nearly 58 percent of voters backed the proposition, with 69 percent of the vote reported early Wednesday morning.

The effort would also bar schools from allowing transgender people to use private spaces that don’t align with their sex assigned at birth, defining the word “sex” as “as an individual’s biological status as male or female as recorded at birth on an original birth certificate.”

The measure notes that currently only public schools and their competing rivals are subject to rules around sex designations of sports teams.

Republicans have heavily leaned into issues around whether transgender people can use private facilities or play on sports teams that align with their gender identity in recent years, and the issues have divided some Democrats.

GOP lawmakers have specifically focused on transgender girls and women looking to play in girls’ and women’s sports leagues.

The Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law estimated in 2025 that there around 300,000 young individuals — ages 13 to 17 — who identify as transgender in the country in total. Separately, roughly 400,000 people aged 18 to 24 years old identify this way.