Your Daily Guide

November Ballot Initiative Focuses on 12 Students State-Wide

Amidst all the mail-in voting chaos, Washington voters will also be deciding on several ballot initiatives backed by Let’s Go Washington, a conservative political action committee founded and sponsored by right-wing donor and hedge fund executive Brian Heywood. In today’s newsletter, I’m focusing on one of those initiatives which directly affects the rights of transgender kids in the state: IL26-638, “Protecting Fairness in Girls’ Sports.” The initiative would ban roughly 10-12 transgender Washington girls — out of about 80,000 — from competing in school-sponsored sports. In a shockingly simple yet brilliant feat of journalism, CHUM News reporters talked with youth athletes themselves alongside social workers, health experts, and representatives of the campaigns for and against the initiatives to understand what’s really at stake here. [CHUM News]

• “We should be encouraging children to play sports no matter what:” Initiative 638 would require sex verification for all girls in public K-12 schools who want to compete in school sports. Student athletes like Mykah Westgaard told CHUM they were appalled to learn it could require girls to have their sex assigned at birth verified by a healthcare provider with an examination of reproductive anatomy, which could be a genital exam, genetic or hormone testing. “It’s such an invasive thing to do to children — especially young girls, who are already going to experience so many violating things as they grow up just because they’re girls.” [CHUM News]
• Seattle Times recommends a no vote on I-638: The Seattle Times editorial board writes, “IL 26-638 would send Washington back to the days of “femininity certificates,” when amateur women athletes, including Olympic athletes, had to carry proof that they had passed visual exams and chromosome testing that proved they were women. Under this proposed initiative, parents of girls as young as 12 could be subject to this violation of privacy.” [Seattle Times]
• Learn more on the podcast: To more deeply understand both Initiative 638 and another called IL26-001, we spoke with Libby Watson of No Hate in WA State.

🏆 Seattle is home to at least SIX geniuses: After a decade hiatus, The Stranger’s Genius awards are back! The awards give $10,000 (no strings attached) to six visionaries in Film, Food, Literature, Music, Performance, and Visual Art – including my personal favorites Betty Wetter and the cast of TUSH, the incredible artists over at Actualize Artist in Residency, Liam’s favorites at The Beacon Cinema, and the brilliant poet and multihyphenate Anastacia-Reneé. [The Stranger]

⚡ Lake Washington fish electrocuted by light rail: An estimated 2,000 fish have died near the ends of the I-90 floating bridge, likely due to the electrical current from light rail operations. So far, it seems like the majority of fish are nonnative or invasive perch and bass, plus a small number of salmon. Sound Transit is working to fix the issue and says the current is not a health hazard for people. [Seattle Times]

🎒 Breaking down the deal that kept schools open: The tentative agreement appears to be a compromise that gives both Seattle Public Schools (SPS) and Seattle Education Association (SEA) what they needed. SEA got a significant raise and prevented unpopular changes to special education services. SPS got a contract they say fits their budget. The agreement goes to vote with the full SEA membership on Sept. 11 and the school board on Sept. 16. [The Bulletin]