Terah Ebie is Founder and President of Queer Community Network
A few weeks ago, I was out to breakfast with someone close to me. Our politics don’t tend to align, but over the years we have maintained a respectful relationship with enough space to discuss the state of the world.
This time, the conversation turned to MAGA mega-donor Brian Heywood’s Initiative 638.
Knowing that I am both the mother of a young athlete and a fierce advocate for transgender people, my breakfast companion had trouble reconciling those two identities. Between bites of eggs Benedict, he asked:
“Aren’t you worried about your daughter playing sports with boys?”
He expected this to be a “gotcha” moment, creating a small crevice of doubt that could be pried open and used to change my position. Before I answered, I set down my fork, made eye contact, and responded clearly and emphatically: “No. I am not.”
His question reflects the messaging that the Let’s Go Washington PAC has spent millions of dollars cultivating: that Initiative 638 is designed to “protect girls’ sports.” But that promise is not just a farce; it’s quite the opposite of the effect these new rules will have on our young girls.
Protecting girls’ sports starts with protecting girls.
I-638 is the opposite of protection, requiring every young girl wishing to participate in sports to submit medical verification of her sex and exposing our elementary, middle, and high school daughters to unnecessary genital inspections. The confusing rule tells our kids that their word isn’t good enough, that they must prove themselves by undressing in front of strangers and subjecting themselves to invasive examinations. Their parents’ attestations don’t count. Their bona fide birth certificates aren’t even enough.
Proponents of this discriminatory initiative say girls can “prove” their sex through genetic and hormone testing—but access to and cost of these tests make them unrealistic for the majority of Washington’s families. More than 150,000 school-aged girls in our state do not have access to pediatricians or regular family doctors and even those who do won’t be able to convince their insurance companies to cover medically-unnecessary testing. The most accessible option will be invasive genital exams of young girls.
Let’s Go Washington wants voters to believe this change in policy is no different from the requirements of current sports physicals, but that is blatantly and evidentially untrue. Today, students remain fully clothed during Washington sports-readiness exams, as supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Sports Medicine, and American Academy of Family Physicians, but I-638 will change that.
My friend across the table and I both care deeply about protecting our kids. The difference is in what we have been told threatens them. So I continued: Am I worried?
Absolutely.
I am worried because at least one in four girls experiences sexual abuse before reaching adulthood.
I am worried about how this initiative jeopardizes the lessons we try to teach our girls, to establish boundaries, trust themselves, and follow their instincts. I am worried about reinforcing the exact lesson that abusers rely upon: that adults are entitled to cross a child’s boundaries and that compliance is required to do something as simple as play on a team.
I am worried because the burden will not fall equally and because black and brown girls, girls from low-income families, girls with disabilities, gender-nonconforming girls, and girls whose bodies do not match someone else’s narrow expectations of femininity would be the most vulnerable to suspicion, scrutiny, and exclusion.
I am not worried about the handful of trans girls who want exactly what my daughter wants: to be with their friends, find a community, and play a game they love.
Initiative 638 and Heywood’s accompanying I-001 are both attempts to use our children as pawns in a political agenda, relying on misinterpreted scripture and manufactured fear around a tiny number of vulnerable children to distract us from real issues that are facing us in Washington.
Our kids deserve protection, not politicization.
They deserve to learn teamwork, confidence, discipline, and joy without being turned into evidence in someone else’s culture war. Yes, I am deeply worried about our girls.
That is precisely why I am voting NO on I-638. I hope you will join me.
