Phew! Summer break for our littlest learners (and those not-so-little anymore!) is here in full force.

I hope you and all parents, aunties, grandparents and caregivers alike will get a much-needed break from the school year hustle – and a real chance to breathe – but there’s something brewing in our collective future that I want to make sure we’re talking about proactively.

While more and more families across WA are struggling to stay afloat in Donald Trump’s economy of tariffs and inflation, but still managing to infuse their children’s lives with love and care, a Trump mega-donor and hedge fund multi-millionaire, Brian Heywood, is bankrolling two more ballot initiatives that would put our kids and their classmates in real danger.

In response to that, MomsRising and the parents and trusted adults of Washington State say: NOPE. Absolutely not!

→ ADD YOUR NAME here to our roster of parents and voters rejecting these initiatives.

These two initiatives, IL26-001 and IL26-638, will be on our November ballots and I’m ringing the alarm now among our statewide community of fierce and loving moms and parents because these initiatives would remove commonsense protections for child abuse victims, out LGBTQ+ students to unsupportive families, and subject hundreds of thousands of girls to invasive genital exams just to play afterschool sports.

ADD YOUR NAME here to join our POWERFUL ROSTER of voters committed to voting NO on invasive genital exams for girl athletes & NO to undermining the safety of LGBTQ+ youth and child abuse victims.

Parents and voters may not always agree on everything (heck, we’re all figuring out the screen time battle in our own way, on the fly!), but something I know to be true is that we work together to protect our children from harm and set them up for a life of joy and success. 

This is one of many reasons why MomsRising is a proud endorser of No Hate in WA, the campaign opposing IL26-001 and IL26-638. 

Knowledge is power, so I want to make sure you have the facts about IL26-001 and IL26-638:

FACTS ABOUT IL26-001: THE FORCED OUTING INITIATIVE

What IL26-001 Does:

• IL26-001 would repeal the Safety Act (HB 1296), a bipartisan bill that ensures students have access to education and a safe learning environment. It would reinstate I-2081 and strip critical student privacy protections.
   
• Removes protections for abused children: Current law prevents parents under criminal investigation for child abuse from accessing their child’s social work, counseling, and disciplinary records. IL26-001 removes this protection.
• Forces schools to “out” LGBTQ+ students: IL26-001 would require teachers and counselors to reveal students’ identities to parents, even when doing so puts the student at risk of abuse or homelessness.
• Restricts students’ access to help: Students facing violence, sexual abuse, bullying, or depression would be less likely to seek help from school counselors who would be required to disclose confidential information.
• Disrupts classrooms: IL26-001 empowers extremist groups to challenge what teachers can teach, using confusing language that exposes school districts to costly lawsuits.

Yikes. No thanks. → ADD YOUR NAME here to our roster of parents and voters rejecting these initiatives.

FACTS ABOUT IL26-638: INVASIVE EXAMS ON GIRLS

What IL26-638 Does:

• IL26-638 is a constitutional amendment imposing a blanket ban on transgender students in girls’ sports and requiring medical verification of sex for female athletes. It replaces Washington’s successful case-by-case policy that has been in place since 2007.
   
• Invasive genital exams on girls: Under IL26-638, girls who want to play on a team will need medical certification of their sex, defined as a “reproductive organ” exam or costly genetic/hormone testing. Boys are exempt from these requirements.
• Disproportionate impact on girls of color: Low-income, rural, Black, brown, and immigrant girls who lack access to long-term family doctors would be most affected. These families often rely on free group sports physicals where genital inspections would be especially harmful.
• Replaces a working policy: Washington has had transgender-inclusive sports policies since 2007 with no issues. Only a handful of transgender girls play after-school sports in Washington. The current case-by-case approach works.
• Medically unnecessary: The American Academy of Family Physicians says sports physicals should focus on heart, bone, and lung issues. The American College of OB-GYNs says pelvic exams have no medical reason for girls under 21 unless they have other health concerns.
• Black and brown girls face more scrutiny: Research shows that Black and brown women athletes face challenges to their sex far more frequently than white athletes. IL26-638 could be used to harass girls of color and keep them off sports teams.

These initiatives are opposed by nurses, mental health experts, teachers, domestic violence prevention advocates, the WA State Nurses Association, and MomsRising — because they're poorly written measures that play politics with our children's safety and wellbeing.

Out of 1 million K-12 students in our state, only a handful (5-10) of trans girls play sports and it’s not okay for a Trump mega-donor to bully them – and threaten all girls who play sports – with this statewide ballot initiative when the real threats to fairness in girls’ sports are systemic factors like under-resourced school district budgets and family wealth gaps.

Caring about girls’ sports means removing barriers, not creating more barriers for all girls in WA, like the invasive gentital exam requirements proposed by IL26-638.

Join me and parents across our state in building a POWERFUL ROSTER of voters committing to voting NO on invasive genital exams for girl athletes & NO on undermining the safety of LGBTQ+ youth and child abuse victims.

As parents and community members, we have the power to say no to IL26-001 and IL26-638 – and the mega-millionaire bankrolling a statewide effort to bully vulnerable kids via the ballot.

Thank you for making it this far! Together, we’re a powerful force.

Enjoy your summer. Hug your kids. And when the time comes, let's make sure they go back to schools and sports that will remain safe, supportive, and on their side.