WA state vows to fight Trump EO protecting women’s sports

On Thursday, the day after Trump signed the Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports order, Reykdal issued a statement claiming that the executive order “directly contradicts state law” and “requires educational institutions to agree to discriminate against trans female athletes in order to continue receiving federal funds.”

He added, “We are working closely with the Attorney General’s Office to understand the next steps for our state and for our school districts in response to this unlawful order.”

Reykdal, who has presided over a disastrous decline in Washington academics where it was recently revealed that 71 percent of the State’s eighth graders aren’t proficient in math and 69 percent aren’t proficient in reading despite record spending, continued, “One thing is clear: The 47th President of the United States is disregarding the rule of law by attempting to unilaterally impose an attack on the specific student groups that anti-discrimination laws aim to protect.” The statement later added, "Our state law prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and we will not back down from that."

He vowed that “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. We believe in inclusion over discrimination, and love over hate.”

Trump’s executive order ensures that federal agencies only grant funding to entities that follow Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination. Trump recently affirmed in another executive order that there are only two sexes. Trump said Wednesday at the signing ceremony, “With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over.” Following the ceremony, the NCAA announced that its “Board of Governors voted to update the Association’s participation policy for transgender student-athletes following the Trump administration’s executive order. The new policy limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only.”

In the Evergreen State, biological boys and men can compete in girls’ and women’s sports because the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) allows people to compete based on how they identify. WIAA said in a statement Wednesday that it “remains committed to following Washington state law.”

The agency continued, “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. Until the Association sees full language of the executive order and conducts further legal review, its impact on participation in Washington public schools is unknown. The WIAA will continue to work with OSPI and the Attorney General’s Office on remaining in compliance with the law.”

In December, the WIAA announced that it had proposed two bylaw amendments that would limit participants in girls’ sports to students who were born as females and prevent students who were born male and now identify as female from competing in girls' sports. The announcement followed multiple headline-grabbing victories in Washington by boys competing in girls' events.

One of the amendments proposed would create a girls’ division and an "open division" in which all students could participate, regardless if their gender identity matches the sex they were born as. The second amendment proposes the creation of a boys’ division, a girls’ division, and an "open division." The vote on the bylaws is scheduled for April.