By Sohaib Shams
Voters in Washington state and Colorado approved ballot measures on Tuesday banning transgender athletes from participating in school-sanctioned sports, extending a trend that has largely been driven by Republican-led states.
Washington Measure 638 Passes with 56% Support
Measure 638 in Washington, which garnered more than 56% of the vote, prevents students assigned male at birth from competing in sports designated for female athletes. The measure also requires athletes seeking to participate in female sports to provide a statement from a health care provider verifying their gender.
Colorado Proposition 134 Approved by 52% of Voters
In Colorado, Proposition 134 received 52% support. It requires educational institutions and athletic associations to designate sports as male, female, or coed, and limits athletes to competing in the gender they were assigned at birth.
Other States Expand Restrictions
The results come alongside similar actions elsewhere. Arizona voters passed Proposition 318, expanding a 2022 law to bar transgender girls from female sports in all schools and athletic associations, and restricting transgender people to facilities matching their birth-assigned gender. Nebraska voters codified an existing ban into the state constitution through Measure 442, requiring sports to be designated by sex and prohibiting students assigned male at birth from female sports.
Missouri Rejects Broader Ban
Not all measures succeeded. Missouri voters defeated Amendment 3, which would have banned gender-transition treatments for minors and repealed abortion rights.
Political Implications
The outcomes suggest that restrictions on transgender athletes have gained bipartisan traction, even in states with Democratic leadership. “This was always coming because politicians in those states have been ignoring their constituencies on the ground,” said Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School. The results follow former President Donald Trump’s 2024 executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which directed federal agencies to interpret Title IX based on sex assigned at birth. Meanwhile, Democrats gained control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, driven largely by voter discontent over issues such as the war in Iran.
GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis called the transgender-focused campaigns a losing strategy. “The reality is undeniable: fearmongering about transgender people is a losing strategy,” she said. “Election 2026 must go down in history as the last campaign to try it.”
