Washington state officials are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender women from participating in girls and women’s sports.
The Feb. 5 order said the government would rescind federal funds from schools that allow trans women to participate in women’s sports, which the order said “results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”
The Washington Interscholastic Athletics Association (WIAA), which sets rules for middle and high school sports in the state, allows trans students to participate in the gender category that aligns with their identity.
State Superintendent Chris Reykdal said in a Thursday, Feb. 6 news release that the federal order directly contradicts state law, including the Washington Law Against Discrimination.
He framed the executive order as “another attempt to override the authority of states and local school districts,” in the news release.
Reykdal said OSPI is working with the Attorney General’s Office to understand how the state and school districts should respond.
“Washington state will do everything in our power to defend the rule of law, states’ rights to establish education policy, and to protect the beautiful diversity of our 1.1 million students and educators,” Reykdal said. “We believe in inclusion over discrimination, and love over hate.”
The Attorney General’s Office is “repulsed by the president’s dehumanization of the trans community,” Deputy Communication Director Mike Faulk said in an email to CDN. “This and other orders are clearly part of the administration’s larger plan to strip away civil rights across society.”
The WIAA does not yet know the impact of the executive order on their rules, said Sean Bessette, director of communications. He said the association will work with OSPI and the Attorney General’s Office to remain in compliance with state law.
“The interpretation of state law in conjunction with legal review, including how the Association’s gender-identity participation policies align with state law, has yet to change,” he said.
The WIAA’s representative assembly, made up of middle and high school administrators, is preparing to consider two amendments in April that would restrict trans athletes’ access from girls sports.
One amendment, spearheaded by the Lynden School District, was modeled after Alaska’s program that changes boys sports to an “open division,” and restricts girls sports to biological girls. A second, proposed by Eastmont School district, would restrict girls and boys sports to 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 biological sex.
Lynden Christian, Blaine School Board and Meridian School Board have all supported one or both amendments.
Bessette said he expects the vote on these amendments to go ahead as planned in April.
Reporter Nick Zeller-Singh contributed to this story.
Charlotte Alden is CDN’s general assignment/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.
