Spectators cheer female 2nd place finisher after transgender runner wins Washington state Girls’ 400m title

This marks Garcia’s second consecutive victory in the 2A girls' 400-meter event. The runner also participated in East Valley’s girls’ 4×100-meter relay team, which took first place earlier in the day with a time of 48.39, and anchored the team’s 4×400 relay squad, which finished third.

For comparison, the 2024 2A boys’ 400-meter title was won by Isaac Ford of East Valley (Yakima) in 48.47 seconds—a difference of over seven seconds from the girls’ winning time.

Before and after the race, members of the track and field team from Tumwater wore t-shirts reading “Keep Women’s Sports Female.”

Spectators booed Garcia and cheered Matthew when the teens ascended the winners' podium.

Washington State law requires that students be allowed to participate in sports programs that align with their gender identity. In early 2024, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) introduced two rule proposals that would have restricted participation in girls’ sports to biological females.

Amendment ML/HS No. 7, which narrowly failed by a single vote, would have created a “Boys/Open Category” open to all students while reserving the girls’ category for those assigned female at birth. A second proposal, ML/HS No. 8, offering a boys, girls, and open division structure, was defeated 40 to 13.

Both were ultimately rejected after the Democratic Attorney General and Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal, threatened legal action if the agency moved forward with the changes. The WIAA stated it had been advised by Reykdal and the state’s Office for Civil Rights that the proposed rule changes would violate Washington’s anti-discrimination laws.

Meanwhile, the WIAA announced on the same day as the advisory votes that girls’ flag football would become an official sport in Washington. Some critics have raised concerns that the policy allowing gender identity-based participation could extend to the new program.

Reykdal also recently made national headlines for stating that “it is quite simply inaccurate to say biologically that there are only boys and only girls.” His office is currently under investigation by the US Department of Education’s Office of the General Counsel for potential violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), and Title IX.

15-year-old Frances Staudt told KOMO News she was penalized by her school district for refusing to play in a basketball game against a transgender athlete. “Our school administrators and the WIAA have failed us,” she said. “They say they are here for all students, but they are clearly not here for the girls.” A civil rights complaint has since been filed with the US Department of Education on her behalf.

The issue has been the subject of national attention and political action. President Donald Trump recently signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order, mandating that federal funds be contingent upon maintaining gender-based sports divisions. In response, Superintendent Reykdal said the policy “directly contradicts state law” and “requires educational institutions to agree to discriminate against trans female athletes.”

Critics of the current policies argue that female athletes are losing competitive opportunities. In 2022, Aspen Hoffman, a biological male athlete, helped Seattle Academy’s girls’ cross-country team qualify for state and broke a school record in the girls’ 5,000-meter event. In May 2024, another biological male won a girls’ cross-country title, prompting the Quilcene School District to ban transgender participation in girls’ sports.

A 2024 report from the United Nations noted that by March of that year, over 600 female athletes had lost nearly 900 medals across 400 competitions in 29 sports to transgender athletes.

Last week, Reykdal falsely claimed in an interview with TVW, “It isn't until this administration came and made it a national issue that suddenly people think there's a crisis. And you know, they have this false sense that kids are in the wrong locker rooms, which just does not happen.”

He added, “We've had a state for a decade and a half doing this really well. Other states have modeled us. It's gone quite effectively. It's. There's a lot of trans youth. There are very few who actually participate in athletics, and now suddenly it's a big issue.”