Voters in seven states this fall will weigh more than half a dozen ballot initiatives with direct bearings on LGBTQ+ people — disproportionately on transgender youth. They come as LGBTQ+ rights issues feature heavily in campaigns for candidates on either side of the aisle in the final stretch of November’s midterm elections, which will determine party control of Congress and several key governorships. Nearly half of LGBTQ+-related ballot initiatives this year would restrict trans student-athletes from competing in line with their gender identity, an issue championed overwhelmingly by Republicans and by a rising share of Democrats.
Others would ban certain transition-related treatments for minors — another focus of conservative candidates and President Donald Trump’s second administration. Since 2021, more than half the nation has adopted laws barring trans students from playing on school sports teams matching their gender identity, and 27 states have banned gender-affirming care for trans youth. Nationally, the number of trans students who participate in school sports is unknown, but is believed to be relatively low: The Williams Institute estimates that just over 300,000 13- to 17-year-olds in the United States are trans, and not all of them will play sports.
In Washington state, where voters will decide this fall whether to ban trans student-athletes from teams matching their gender identity, the organization governing high school sports told The 19th that it is aware of about 10 trans middle and high schoolers who play sports out of more than 200,000 students who compete statewide. Other ballot initiatives appearing before voters this fall include measures to change the state constitution to expand nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people; formally repeal language against same-sex marriages and modify students’ and parents’ rights in schools. Here’s where LGBTQ+ rights are on the ballot this November.
Arizona voters will decide this fall whether trans student-athletes may continue to compete on school sports teams that align with their gender identity. A ballot initiative introduced late last year by state Rep. Selina Bliss, a Republican running for reelection, would effectively restore a 2022 state law restricting trans athletes’ participation that a federal appeals court had blocked in 2024.
Kris Mayes, Arizona’s Democratic attorney general, has declined to defend the law in court. Bliss’ proposal would require public and qualifying private schools to designate K-12 sports teams as exclusively “male,” “female” or “coeducational” based on participating students’ “biological status at birth.” It would also bar trans students from using restrooms, locker rooms and other spaces “integral to athletic engagement” that match their gender identity. In July, a lawsuit challenging the measure claimed it violated a requirement that Arizona ballot initiatives address only a single subject and was “misleading to the point of fraud.” A state superior court judge later ruled that the initiative could remain on the November 3 ballot.
Colorado voters will decide whether to bar trans student-athletes from competing in line with their gender identity by designating K-12 and collegiate sports teams based on students’ “biological reproductive systems.” The ballot initiative qualified for the general election after Protect Kids Colorado, the organization behind it, collected more than 168,000 signatures statewide. Voters will also decide whether to ban transition-related surgeries for minors, and whether state or federal funds, Medicaid reimbursements or insurance coverage can be used to help pay for them. Such surgeries are already rare.
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