DENVER — Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly rebuffed calls to ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports, but blue-state voters will have an opportunity for the first time to decide for themselves in November.
Citizen-led initiatives requiring scholastic athletes to participate based on biological sex are poised to appear on the Nov. 3 ballot in three Democratic-controlled states — Colorado, Maine and Washington — in the first direct test of the issue’s strength with the voting public.
All three states allow biological males who identify as female to compete in the girls’ category. All three have stood by transgender athletes despite pushback from Republicans, single-sex sports advocates, and parents worried about fairness and safety on their daughters’ teams.
Erin Lee, executive director of Protect Kids Colorado, said the last straw was Democrats’ blocking of the Republican-sponsored Women’s Rights in Athletics bill in 2023 despite what she called “overwhelming turnout” in favor of the measure.
“It got killed on a party-line vote in the ‘kill’ committee. That’s why we took it,” Ms. Lee told The Washington Times. “People obviously want this, and we’re hearing from so many people who are affected by this, but they’re afraid to speak up and they don’t know what to do about it.”
Colorado Initiative 109, titled Male and Female Participation in School Sports, would require associations governing K-12 and collegiate scholastic sports to designate teams as male, female or coed. Teams for girls and women would be open only to students with female reproductive biology.
Protect Kids Colorado is running a second transgender-related measure, Initiative 110, which would prohibit gender transition surgeries for minors.
Both initiatives qualified for the ballot last week after the secretary of state verified their signatures.
Also clearing the signature hurdle last week was the Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine referendum, which will appear on the general election ballot unless the state Legislature enacts the measure before adjourning April 15.
Nobody is holding his or her breath. Like Colorado and Washington, Maine has a Democratic trifecta, meaning the governor’s office and both legislative houses are controlled by Democrats.
“While we hope the Legislature acts and signs this into law, we do anticipate this going to the November election,” said a Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine spokesperson.
The proposal would require student-athletes to compete based on sex at birth as shown on the original birth certificate. Schools also would need to prohibit opposite-sex access to single-sex facilities such as locker rooms and restrooms.
In Washington, organizers with the conservative group Let’s Go Washington submitted signatures in January, earning a spot on the Nov. 3 ballot after the state Legislature declined to adopt the proposal before adjourning March 12.
Washington IL26-638, known as the Protecting Fairness in Girls’ Sports Act, would ban “biologically male” students from female sports, based on physical exams that student-athletes already must take before competing.
Another two states, Nevada and Nebraska, already prohibit biological males in female scholastic sports, but conservative groups are circulating petitions aimed at enshrining the bans into their state constitutions. The deadline for signatures is June 24 in Nevada and July 3 in Nebraska.
Looming ballot battle
Organizers of the ballot campaigns like their chances. The transgender athlete issue was credited with helping propel Republicans to victory in the 2024 elections, and a 2025 poll found that nearly 80% of Americans oppose female-identifying males in women’s sports.
“Based on our polling and internal data, we are confident that the initiative will pass,” said Hallie Herzberg, spokesperson for Let’s Go Washington.
Seeking to defy the odds are transgender rights groups. The blue-state initiatives have drawn powerful opposition from the left, all but guaranteeing a full-throated, expensive ballot battle in November.
No Hate in WA State, a coalition that includes leading labor unions, the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood, is leading the campaign against IL26-638 and IL26-001, a proposal aimed at restoring provisions in the 2024 Parents’ Bill of Rights initiative that the state Legislature diluted.
“Only a handful of transgender girls play after-school sports in Washington, yet IL26-638 will roll back Washington’s successful sports policy in place since 2007 and institute a statewide blanket ban,” No Hate in WA State said on its website.
The coalition has zeroed in on the annual sports physicals. It argues that the initiative “could force invasive genital exams on girls,” which the legislation’s supporters deny.
“The opposition has already begun their campaign against the initiative by spinning up false narratives about what the measures does, but we believe that most Washingtonians are on board with it,” Ms. Herzberg said.
Families Not Politics, the committee fighting Colorado Initiatives 109 and 110, accused “right-wing activists” of seeking to “dangerously expand government control over private family decisions.”
“These measures are part of a coordinated, national strategy, and they are using Colorado as a testing ground — and if we don’t stop them here, this playbook spreads across the country,” the group said in a post Friday on Facebook.
Ms. Lee of Protect Kids Colorado said the gender identity issue transcends party and ideological lines. Among those carrying petitions for Initiatives 109 and 110 were gay, lesbian and transgender volunteers, she said, including those affiliated with the LGB Courage Coalition and Gays Not Groomers.
“We have so much support from LGB and T. We have transgender circulators, we have transgender doctors who’ve been in support of what we’re doing,” she said. “Women deserve their spaces. The way we frame it is: male, female and coed. Just biologically based.”
A former Democrat turned unaffiliated voter, Ms. Lee said she is disappointed that Democratic legislators refuse to budge on gender ideology issues.
“I think [the initiatives] are all going to pass, and I’m sad that as a former Democrat that this is the hill they’ve chosen to die on,” she said. “The party of civil rights is now the party of erasing women. I hope it’s a wake-up call.”
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