On November 3, Washington state voters face a ballot question over Initiative 638, a proposed policy that would restrict transgender girls and women from taking part in K-12 athletic competitions designated for female students. Approval by voters would make Washington the first state to enshrine such a policy through a ballot measure rather than legislative action.

Twenty-seven additional states have policies restricting athletic competition by sex at the K-12 level, though each of those rules was put in place through legislative action rather than put to a public referendum. Ballot access for the measure required collecting signatures from residents across the state, ultimately drawing well into the hundreds of thousands.

At a Vancouver, Washington event centred on girls' sports fairness legislation, a group of five women athletes took the stage to recount their personal experiences and call on attendees to back the ballot measure.

Frances Staudt, a 17-year-old in her final year at Tumwater High School in Washington state, shared her experience of facing a transgender athlete during a high school basketball game. Daily harassment in the school corridors has followed her choice to come forward, she told reporters. She also described a man having entered her changing area prior to the start of the match.

Bailey Andersen, a high school basketball player at the time, described an opening tip-off in which a transgender athlete standing six feet tall out-jumped her six-foot-three teammate to win possession. She also recounted encountering a male athlete inside the changing room designated for girls prior to the start of the game.

A second athlete described having aspirations for the Connecticut State Open title during her high school years, telling reporters her confidence had already faded before the starting gun after a transgender competitor took a position alongside her at the blocks.

Kendall Kotzmacher, now a college softball player, competed in a high school state championship game where the opposing team's pitching position was filled by a transgender athlete. She said a number of people she counted as friends distanced themselves from her after she began voicing her position on the matter.

Sadie Sullivan, a competitive swimmer at the high school level, recounted that transgender girls were present in her locker room on a regular basis during changing, and that hearing voices she perceived as male in that space left her feeling uneasy.

Sey, who founded XX-XY Athletics, was present at the rally. Colorado residents — including the former national-team gymnast who lives there — are set to weigh in on a ballot measure this November 3 that would bar transgender girls and women from participating in school sports categories designated for female athletes.

Sey has expressed a desire for the measures to clear a path toward statewide adoption across all 50 jurisdictions. Staudt argued that a willingness by Washington to take a legislative stance protecting girls and women could serve as a model for other states considering similar measures, adding that wider awareness of the outcome's achievability matters.

Brandi Kruse, whose podcast Undivided originates out of Washington, took the stage as the rally's host. Kruse addressed the position taken by those on the opposing side, noting that one argument they had not put forward was any claim that athletic competition between boys and girls is unproblematic, while characterising their actual arguments as fabrications, including an assertion — which she disputed — that the initiative would require girls to undergo invasive physical examinations.

Critics of the measure have pointed to its testing and examination requirements as a source of concern, while one backer noted that a patient's own doctor already holds information about that patient's biological sex. During a July council session, Olgy Diaz — a member of the Tacoma City Council — employed the term "invasive genital inspections" in her remarks.

Both the Seattle City Council and King County Democrats put forward comparable positions on the measure, with the county party characterising Initiative 638 as a provision that would mandate physical examinations of girls' bodies before they could participate in school athletics.

Those backing the proposal say that a win in Washington state could carry weight beyond the state's borders, shaping the conversation at a national level.

Outside the venue hosting the Protecting Fairness in Girls Sports rally in Vancouver, Washington, a man standing alone held a sign bearing the question, "if you are not an antifascist, what are you," and when a photographer drew near, he chose not to give his name or be photographed.