A proposed amendment to the Washington Interscholastic Athletics Association’s guidelines, backed by some Whatcom County schools, would restrict girls sports to students “assigned female at birth.”
The amendment is supported by Lynden Christian School, Lynden School District, Blaine School District, and 11 other districts around the state. Its rationale states it is modeled after Alaska’s program, “which replaces boys’ sports with an open division for all student-athletes while also creating eligibility restrictions for girls’ sports and girls’ divisions.”
A second amendment, also backed by Lynden, is up for consideration in April 2025. That amendment would maintain boys and girls sports for only students assigned that gender at birth, but create a separate, open division for students who want to participate in sports not aligning with their assigned sex at birth.
Currently, the WIAA’s Handbook allows for full participation for trans, nonbinary and gender-diverse students in the division of the gender they “most consistently expressed,” following state law and federal Title IX protections. Washington is one of 14 states that affirm equal opportunity to play school sports in accordance with gender identity, according to LGBTQ+ education organization GLSEN.
The WIAA is a private, rule-making body with a mission to “create equitable playing conditions between high school sports teams in Washington.”
Sean Bessette, WIAA director of communications, told CDN in September that the association’s office is conducting a legal review of its gender participation policies, “evaluating the possibilities within Washington state law.”
But, the body’s representative assembly, made up of 53 high school and middle school administrators from across the state, dictates the rules of the organization.
The representative assembly will discuss and finalize the language and content of each amendment during the Winter Coalition, taking place online on Jan. 27. The assembly will vote on the proposed amendments from April 9–18, 2025. An amendment needs 60% approval from voting members to pass.
Bessette said in an email to CDN on Dec. 12 if a passed amendment violates Washington state law, the WIAA would be “unable to implement the amendment.” He said he was unable to speak directly to the gender participation amendments until their language and content is finalized in January.
The Lynden School Board directed Superintendent David VanderYacht to pursue an amendment to WIAA’s gender participation guidelines in June, arguing that only “biological females” should be able to participate in girls sports. Lynden sent letters to local legislators in September asking for legislative guidance on how to navigate trans inclusion in sports.
Lynden was a key driver in the development of the amendment to restrict trans girls from participating in girls sports, modeled off of a policy in Alaska. Eastmont School District led the development of the alternate amendment to create a third, open division. VanderYacht said the group of districts decided to propose both amendments to try to “move the discussion forward.”
“The current gender identity participation guidelines are unworkable and place young people in harmful circumstances,” VanderYacht told CDN in an email Wednesday, Dec. 11. “The adults in leadership positions must have the courage to engage respectfully to find a path forward that upholds fairness and integrity of girls’ sports while honoring the dignity of transgender student-athletes.”
In September, the Blaine School Board asked the district administration to develop or submit an amendment to the WIAA for the “purpose of promoting fairness in state level competitions for sex-segregated sports.”
Blaine Superintendent Christopher Granger said the school board and district understand that legislative action would “likely need to occur” for the amendments to be passed.
“A dialogue around this is likely needed, and we’re hoping that conversation can continue in support of all students,” he said.
Lynden Christian School did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other proposed amendments
The WIAA will also vote on 14 other proposed amendments this spring. Some of these would add girls flag football as a high school sport, redefine the transfer period and process, and increase WIAA membership fees by 25% in 2025-26 and 2026-27.
Girls flag football was a proposed amendment last year but failed to reach 60% of votes, only getting 26 votes in favor compared to 27 against. In the proposed amendment, the flag football season could take place either March to May, August to October, or November to March for the 2025-26 season.
Also, athletes would only be able to compete in four halves of play in one day and up to 32 halves throughout the season excluding the jamboree.
The transfer period and process have several proposed changes, including a WIAA-defined transfer window, which is the natural break between each school year after a student establishes their high school eligibility as a student member in the ninth grade.
The WIAA is looking to increase the fees for schools that are members of the WIAA regardless of whether the school has sports or activities. The fees correlate with the enrollment size numbers of the school for the 2024-2028 classification cycle.
If the amendment passes, 1A Whatcom County schools (Blaine, Lynden Christian, Meridian, Mount Baker and Nooksack Valley) would see an increase from either $1,500 or $1,900 to $1,875 or $2,375 respectively for the 2025-26 school year.
2A Whatcom and Skagit schools (Anacortes, Bellingham, Burlington-Edison, Lynden, Sedro-Woolley, Sehome and Squalicum) would see an increase from between $2,200-$2,700 up to $2,750-$3,375
3A Whatcom and Skagit schools (Ferndale and Mount Vernon) would see an increase from $2,700 or $3,000 to $3,375 or $3,750 respectively.
The rest of the proposed amendments can be found on the WIAA website.
