Voters in Washington and Colorado approve ballot measures banning transgender athletes from female school sports

What happened

Voters in Washington state and Colorado approved ballot measures aimed at keeping transgender athletes out of school-sanctioned female sports, according to The Associated Press in a report published by ABC News. Both states lean left. Their Democratic-led governors' offices and legislatures had declined to pass the kind of bans that have become the norm in Republican-led states, so supporters took the question directly to voters.

Washington's Measure 638

Measure 638 received more than 56% of the vote, AP reported. It bars students who were assigned male at birth from sports designated for female athletes. It also requires athletes who want to compete in female sports to provide a statement from a health care provider verifying their gender.

Colorado's Proposition 134

Proposition 134 was supported by 52% of voters. It requires educational institutions and athletic associations to classify sports as male, female or coed. It also limits athletes to sports matching the gender they were assigned at birth.

Arizona and Nebraska also acted

Arizona voters approved Proposition 318, which expands restrictions first set out in a 2022 law. Transgender girls were already barred from female sports in Arizona public schools. The new measure extends that ban to all schools and athletic associations and limits transgender people to bathrooms and other private spaces matching the gender they were assigned at birth.

Proposition 318 also requires an athlete's "sex" to reflect what is on their birth certificate. It allows athletes to sue schools and associations that violate the expanded law, AP reported.

Nebraska already had a ban on transgender athletes. Voters there wrote it into the state constitution by passing Measure 442. The measure requires schools to designate sports as male, female or coed and bars students assigned male at birth from female sports.

Courts and limits

Not every effort succeeded. An appeals court on Tuesday struck down a county-level ban in suburban Nassau County, outside New York City, AP reported. The ruling was a setback for the Republican nominee for governor, who championed the legislation while serving as county executive.

In Missouri, voters rejected Amendment 3. It would have banned gender-transition treatment and surgeries for minors and repealed the right to abortion.

The national picture

According to AP, well over half the country now has a transgender athlete ban of some kind. The Washington and Colorado votes came less than two years after President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports." The order gave federal agencies wide latitude to make sure entities that receive federal funding follow Title IX under the administration's view that "sex" means the gender assigned at birth.

AP reported that these results, along with voter ID requirements passing in places such as Ohio, show that some Trump-backed policies draw support across the political spectrum. The outlet also reported that broad discontent over higher-profile issues, including the war in Iran, had a far greater impact on the midterms, in which Democrats gained control of the House and Senate. Readers can find more election coverage and other national news on our site.

What others said

Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School, told AP, "This was always coming because politicians in those states have been ignoring their constituencies on the ground." She said whether other Democratic-leaning states follow depends on local political culture and on how well advocacy groups on both sides organize.

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis also commented on the results. In a statement she said "fearmongering about transgender people is a losing strategy."

What to watch next

• Whether other Democratic-leaning states take up similar measures. Coleman told AP this depends on local political culture and on advocacy groups on both sides.
• How Washington's requirement for a health care provider statement is applied to athletes seeking to compete in female sports.
• How schools and athletic associations in Arizona respond to Proposition 318, which allows athletes to sue over violations.