Colorado and Washington put transgender sports bans before voters

Ballot campaigns bypass lawmakers who rejected earlier bans

Supporters of bans on transgender women and girls from female sports competitions have put proposed measures on the ballots in Colorado and Washington, two reliably Democratic states whose elected officials have rejected such bans, according to the Associated Press. The campaigns are the first to send the issue directly to voters, after it was debated in many legislatures.

In both states, activists went around lawmakers to put the proposed bans before voters, the Associated Press reported. Elected officials in Colorado and Washington had rejected moves to bar transgender women and girls from female sports competitions, and the ballot route takes the question to the electorate without the statehouses acting first.

The measures arrive as some Democratic leaders nationwide recalibrate their approach to transgender issues, particularly sports. Polls show Americans generally support the bans, according to the Associated Press.

Supporters are optimistic the two measures will pass, and they say passage would open the door to similar efforts in other places where lawmakers have blocked bans.

Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which supports LGBTQ+ rights, framed the two contests as a test for what follows. “What is happening in 2026 is a testing ground for the future,” Figueredo said.

The ballot route changes which institution decides. In the two states, elected officials have declined to write bans on transgender women and girls in female sports competitions into law; the campaigns now put the proposal to voters instead.

Each measure pairs a reliably Democratic state, where elected officials had resisted such restrictions, with a route that lawmakers did not provide. A win in either state would mean a restriction on transgender women and girls in female sports took effect in a state where elected officials had opposed one, and supporters say that would open the door to similar efforts elsewhere.

What the votes settle is narrow: whether two states put bans on transgender women and girls in female sports competitions into law. What supporters say the results would settle beyond that is whether the ballot route can carry the question in states where legislatures have blocked it.