Fairness in Girls’ Athletics (IL26-638) goes to Washington voters this fall. It would ban male students from competing in K–12 girls’ sports.
The measure would require school districts and nonprofit organizations that run interscholastic sports to “prohibit biologically male students from competing with and against female students” in sports with separate male and female classifications. Lawmakers sent the initiative to the ballot rather than enacting it in the 2026 session.
Supporters, including Let’s Go Washington, the campaign behind Fairness in Girls’ Athletics, frame the measure as keeping boys out of girls’ leagues. Opponents claim it would mean invasive exams or costly testing.
Current Washington Interscholastic Activities Association policy lets students participate consistent with their gender identity or the gender most consistently expressed.
Similar sex-based sports laws are on the books in 27 states. In June 2026 the U.S. Supreme Court held that Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause allow states to reserve girls’ and women’s teams for biological females, in West Virginia v. B.P.J. and an Idaho companion case.
- washington
- sports