Washington Voters Back Girls’ Sports Law, But Boy Competes in State Championship

Nov 13, 2026
C.K. Bouferrache
Transgender Agenda

Even when voters ban boys in girls' sports, the Left finds a way to push transgender ideology on families.

Four days after Washington voters approved a law to keep boys out of girls' sports, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) let a Camas High School boy run in a girls' state cross country championship on Nov. 3. He finished 23rd.

He began the season on the boys' team, placing 76th in a junior varsity race, but switched to the girls' team, where he won a varsity meet and placed second three other times.

At the Westside Classic 4A regional at Chambers Bay, he placed seventh, helping Camas finish fourth and qualify for state. Only the top seven teams advance—meaning his points helped bump the all-girl Puyallup team into eighth place and out of the championship.

Puyallup lost its spot at state to a boy.

The girls' protests began weeks before the state championship.

On October 13, half of the 24 girls on the Camas roster walked off the course at a dual meet against Battle Ground rather than compete alongside him. Skyview runners Charlie Garrett and Sierra Retzlaff later staged their own protest, walking off the starting line. After Retzlaff's father held a sign and chanted at an earlier meet, the Camas School District served him with a criminal trespass notice. The district said the notice was based on his conduct, not his views. Meanwhile, the league moved its district championship from a public park to the former Underwriters Laboratories campus in Camas, citing security concerns. By the time the boy reached Pasco, girls and families had been protesting for weeks, while the adults overseeing the sport continued allowing him to compete.

The WIAA had a chance to address the issue months earlier. In April, its member representatives voted 29–24 in favor of an advisory proposal limiting girls' sports to biological females. But the association refused to adopt it, saying the proposal conflicted with state law. Washington voters then changed the law themselves—and did so across party lines.

Initiative 638 passed with about 56 percent of the vote and carried 36 of Washington's 39 counties, losing only in King (home to Seattle), Jefferson, and San Juan Counties. The same voters also approved the state's new income tax on high-earners, while Let's Go Washington's parents' bill of rights measure is currently trailing.

The results suggest that the same Washingtonians who sided with Democrats on raising taxes sided with conservatives on keeping boys out of girls sports. That makes I-638 hard to dismiss as a "MAGA crusade."

The new law doesn't take effect until December 3, so the WIAA announced it would hold its championships under the old rules until then. That meant the girls in Pasco still had to compete against the boy. Opponents of the initiative have already signaled they won't accept the outcome of the vote. The Northwest Progressive Institute filed a lawsuit on November 10th and asked for a preliminary injunction to block enforcement, while Washington State Democratic Party Chair Shasti Conrad said the fight over I-638 "is just beginning."

Parents arriving at the meet found supporters of the new law waiting outside the gates. Five or six people wearing "XX-XY Athletics" gear handed out pink flyers urging parents to contact the WIAA and politely ask the association to enforce the new law. They also held signs supporting the girls. The response from arriving spectators was overwhelmingly positive: most thanked them, while some stopped to exchange high fives and fist bumps.

Inside the venue, however, the WIAA's sign rules for state championships allow handheld signs only if they stay "positive and not negatively directed toward a team or individual." Staff confiscate anything else. In practice, the rule allowed parents to cheer for their daughters but effectively barred them from protesting a boy's participation in the all-girls race.

The WIAA found yet another way to make it harder for parents to object to how it treats girls.

The WIAA's sign rules didn't stop parents from voicing their objections, though. Around the grounds, several openly complained that the WIAA had allowed him to compete. A group of boys pointed him out and remarked on how big he looked next to the girls. At the starting line, he stood six inches to a foot taller than most of the female runners around him. Eastmont's Ahnaleigh Wilson, who spoke to reporters in support of I-638 at Let's Go Washington's election-night party, was among the girls in the race.

One couple whose daughter ran in the race agreed to speak on camera. Like many parents in Pasco, they were upset that she had to race against a boy.

Another father said he spent the race worried about his daughter running against the boy. He felt relieved when she finished several places ahead of him.

No girl should have to lose to a boy at a girls' state final, and no parent should have to watch it happen. The crowd seemed to share that unease, and applause noticeably faded when the boy came in at the end. A source said he had a security team at the meet.

Amy Sousa has spent years fighting to get boys out of girls' sports. She had a message for the girls who raced in Pasco. "I'm really sorry that adults have put you in this position," Sousa said. "And I really hope you know that there are a lot more adults who want fairness for you…"

If sex matters enough to give girls their own category, Sousa argues, then sex should decide who competes in that category.

Unless a court blocks the law, it takes effect December 3. After that, Washington schools will be required to keep boys out of girls' sports. But the change comes too late for the Puyallup girls, whose season should have ended at state—not at a qualifying meet.

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C.K. Bouferrache is a contributor to Restoration News. She has covered extremist movements in blue American cities for over a decade.

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