Washington voters approve transgender athlete ban

Washington voters are projected to reverse the state’s long-standing policy that has allowed transgender girls to compete on girls’ and women’s school sports teams, according to Decision Desk HQ.

The ballot measure will require students to submit documentation from a healthcare provider verifying their sex before playing on a girls’ team.

It’s a major loss for transgender rights advocates in the blue state. Washington joins 27 states across the country that enacted similar laws prior to Tuesday’s elections, according to the Movement Advancement Project .

But those efforts began in Republican-led legislatures, while this year’s push in Washington came from voters in a state that tends to lean Democratic. Similar measures are on the ballot Tuesday in Arizona, Colorado and Nebraska.

Washington’s Initiative 638, also known as the Defending Equity in Interscholastic Sports Act, requires school districts and nonprofits to “prohibit biologically male students from competing with and against female students” when a sport has a gender divide.

Existing state law requires athletes to undergo a physical exam. Now, the provider during the exam must verify the student’s sex if they want to play on a girls’ team. Providers are instructed to rely on “reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels.”

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court rejected arguments that transgender athlete bans violate Title IX or the Constitution’s equal protection guarantee in a 6-3 vote along ideological lines .

In recent weeks, Washington’s existing policy has brought the issue back to the high court.

A mother whose daughter says a transgender girl sexually assaulted her during a wrestling match wants an exemption from having to compete against a transgender girl in the future. Lower courts rejected the argument, but she filed an emergency appeal with the justices.

It has been ripe for a decision for nearly three weeks, but the justices have yet to act, letting Election Day come and go in the meantime.