Can someone explain to me how my state got everything else right for the most part but went stupid for this one?
Literally, let’s inspect little girls privates, but not boys, because 10 trans students exist and MIGHT want to play sports with their friends? Jesus.
It was also kind of disgusting that literally all our state initiatives were funded by a 1%-er, Brian Heywood and his Let’s Go Washingtion PAC.
I think a lot of the left is being willfully ignorant of other people’s viewpoints and I find it frustrating.
- The vast majority of people voting for this did not know all the content of the bill, “keep boys out of girls sports” is probably the most they heard about it, not the genital checking.
- Plenty of centrists and even right-leaning people are OK with adults doing what they want, but are still very protective of children. Limiting children from hormones is not considered a violation of trans rights for most people; rights have always been segmented by adulthood, the same way a child does not have the right to vote or join the military or get a tattoo. I think a large part of the issue is that the left (or any political ideology) is not really cohesive and is several ontologies in a trench coat; the popular rhetoric (woke version 1 as AOC calls it) from the left has been that gender is a social construct and is divorced from biological sex, if that’s the case then why do trans children need hormones to be their preferred gender? As a fellow leftist I understand everyone experiences gender and it’s relationship to society differently (euphoria vs dysphoria, etc.), but there has been a major nuance gap in public discourse which leaves many Americans feel like the left has pulled a bait and switch on them.
- Society has spent decades promoting girl’s and women’s sports and now feel like that’s being trampled upon by allowing biological males (who have a distinct physical advantage) dominating their space. It’d be like getting rid of weight classifications in power lifting, anyone under 6 feet would never win again and short people would be ousted out of another sport.
Unfortunately I can’t disagree. I do wish people would look something up rather than assume as the initiative did at least say that “it would require verification of a student’s biological sex.” I guess people didn’t ask the obvious next question of “how?”
Proper education and understanding is one of the biggest issues in society. We’re always moving too fast as society intends, so that we’re too tired to think about things, we’ve got bills to pay, and social media primes us to make and stand behind snap judgements.
We really didn’t circulate this ad enough.
Thankfully it should get immediately challenged at the state level based on discrimination since it only applies to girls.
Relax everyone. Conservatives only want to inspect the athletic girls’ genitals. It’s not like they are trying to look at non-athletic girls or even naked boys. That would be gross and immoral.
Each young, athletic girl who has genitals that are capable of passing a detailed inspection with a rating of 7 out of 10 or higher will be permitted to play girl-sports in public for everyone to look at, record and enjoy. And to prevent any criticism from the libs, all genital inspections will need to be video recorded. For safety of course. And then reviewed by men who are officially qualified as authentic conservatives. For safety. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.
Why are genital exams required? Don’t they already already have a copy of everones birth certificate?
Genital exams are required because conservatives are pedophiles. It really is that simple.
FUN FACT: Conservatives are biologically unable to experience empathy. This is why they are unable to view women or children as humans. Humanizing others requires empathy.
A statement from your doctor does not mean a genital exam. I have to get a statement from my doctor for my son to go to summer camp that says he has no physical limitations. That part of the new rules is no big deal. The discussion should be about rights, not this hyperbolic calling everyone a pedo.
Hey now, that’s not fair. It’s not hyperbolic to call conservatives pedophiles. It is a fact that they chose a proud and well known child predator as their best representative out of everyone else in the nation.
They chose him as their most accurate representation three times over a decade, knowing full well that he “likes 'em young”, likes to go into teen dressing rooms uninvited so he can see them nude, and grabs women by their genitals without consent. According to conservatives themselves, no one more accurately represents them than Trump. No one.
It’s not just Trump. Conservatives consistently choose child predators as their most accurate representatives. I think its disrespectful to conservatives to ignore their chosen avatars. They insist on aligning with pedophiles and we should respect that choice and refer to them as such.
Certainly the people implementing these bills and initiatives have a better sense of reality than the idiots voting for them, and so thus must have some sort of even worse goal… Right?
Like, maybe their goal is to just split people, and isn’t entirely horrific laws based on pure fear, ignorance, and bigotry… Right?
…right?
I’m so tired.
They’re all from the same rich asshat so people have thought that it could have been a strategy to get more centrist/right leaning voters to come out and also vote to remove the millionaire’s tax.
Serious question: does this explicitly say that the person whose job it is to inspect the genitals of girls cannot touch the girls?
If not, there’s almost certainly going to be a pedo in this position taking advantage of this new rule to touch underage girls’ genitalia
The article says statement from their healthcare provider, so they should be subject to the Hippocratic oath.
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Can someone explain to me how my state got everything else right for the most part but went stupid for this one?
If that’s an actual question, my guess at an answer is that since this election’s blue wave was more voting against Republicans than for Democrats, it’s not a sign of fundamental change among the electorate. People mostly still believe today what they believed a few years ago (though there’s clear leftward shift), and one of the few genuinely popular things Republicans have is their anti-trans agenda. Therefore when typically Republican-leaning people got to vote on it, they voted against Republicans and simultaneously against trans rights. This is doubly so because trans women in sports is one issue where Republicans can actually make a seemingly rational (but wrong) argument for their case.
Some things lag in politics. Trans kids in sports are the new boogeyman so most people have a hard time accepting the premise. If trans kids are going to be excluded we at least need to focus on education and general acceptance. When I was in high school pretty much nobody was openly gay although I like to think we wouldn’t have treated them like lepers (probably would have). Meeting LGBTQ people in college was common though and a lot of us got over our fears and misconceptions. I’ve met maybe 3-4 trans people in my entire life but in actuality it was probably more because they didn’t feel safe to present as the opposite gender. Unfortunately I think it will take time to get over the initial shock and the best we can do is to try and defend their right to self-determination and encourage them to be who they are so everyone can see this is really no big deal.
Also from a purely propaganda point it’s a great wedge issue, mostly because it’s what I like to call a grey water issue wherein theres a lot of nuance involved so it makes people stupid. Ideally people would stop being stupid and handle this based on an instance by instance basis especially since there are so few trans folks to begin with.
Mind you I know enough about biology to know that it’s a rainbow of fucken grey, because biology abhors easy answers. There’s no such thing as a perfect specimen only a type specimen and even that’s ignoring a lot of variation.
Congrats you have banned 1% of children from a leisure activity and now require minors to present their genitals to adults of no relation.
1% is a huge overstatement. There’s like 4 in the whole state.
This just adds another barrier and pathway to abuse to women’s sports
Transphobia comes from misogyny, they want to hurt both the cis girls and the trans girls.
That’s the point! Brian Heywood wants girls and women to avoid playing sports.
We won the war but lost the battle… Also this is sure to get sued and challenged as it’s a direct discrimination based on sex and title IX prohibits that shit
The war is ongoing make no mistake.
The State Constitution also prohibits this. It will hopefully never take effect because a state court must shut this down.
It wouldn’t be the first right-wing ballot initiative to go directly into the trash in this state.
The measure says students in elementary, middle and high school who want to join girls’ athletics must first submit statements from their healthcare providers verifying their “biological sex”. Opponents have raised alarms the measure may force girls to endure “invasive and extreme” genital exams to participate in school sports.
Can the state supreme court block it?
Epstein is getting hard in is grave
What the fuck.
And specifically targeting girls. How the fuck does something like this even get on the ballot?
Thankfully it’s got a good shot at being ruled unconstitutional, assuming the supreme court doesn’t fuck that up too.
Brian Heywood, a republican millionaire who moved to WA from California to “escape liberals”, has been abusing the ballot initiative system here using his wealth for years. He (and his PAC “Let’s Go Washington”) purposefully makes them misleading or otherwise confusing to understand in order to get them passed.
A silver lining is that most of his initiatives haven’t passed (such as the initiative to repeal the millionaire tax), and those few that have over the years have been gutted, heavily modified, or found to be unconstitutional in the state supreme court. The supreme court here just became even more left leaning, and since the way he wrote the initiative makes it only apply to girls, it’s likely to be thrown out.
That is just humiliating. These aren’t professional sports leagues for god’s sake.
The measure “may” force girls to endure invasive and extreme genital exams? I’m pretty sure having one’s genitals examined, especially when a minor, is invasive and extreme.
I wonder if they’re required to satisfy the federal standard for sex identification. That would require more than a genital exam. It would require capturing a zygote.
Pretty invasive.
It would require capturing a zygote.
Did you mean capturing a gamete? As in, a viable sperm cell or egg? Which proves that the individual is biologically capable of producing those gametes, which means they are capable of producing viable offspring?
Because capturing a zygote (a viable egg that has been successfully fertilized by a viable sperm cell, but hasn’t yet implanted itself on the uterine wall to become an embryo) would require a woman to have a fertilized egg. And I feel like requiring impregnation just to confirm sex is a little… Impractical?
It would mean positively identifying males would be impossible, because they’re not capable of carrying a zygote at all. That that’s before we even get into the whole “in order to confirm an elementary school girl is biologically female so she can compete, the doctor would first need to impregnate her to create a zygote” thing.
I did indeed mean gamete, and thank you for the correction.
Will I don’t support the ban. This seems a little over the top. Invasive and extreme? Any kid getiing regual exams yearly by their doctor get a genital check. That is enough I am sure. Where it gets complicated is with the poor, who can’t afford to have a regular pediatrician. But sadly they usually can’t afford to play school sports often. So there are a ton of problems with all this, like a ton. But I don’t think there are going to be any invasive and extreme exams as a result. With all the real problems this creates, can’t we just stick to those?
My kid didn’t, I was told vaginal exams only start when they become sexually active.
Vaginal exam is more than is needed to confirm boy vs girl. The docs always just lifted the underwear and looked for any sign of abnormalities that might need treatment. No poking or touching even needed.
I don’t remember getting my genitals looked at in regular exams when I was young. Regardless of that, these are NOT health exams–they are to inspect the genitals of the child. That is extreme as fuck. These genital inspections are discriminatory, as boys do not have to submit to them. How anyone could accept this, let alone vote for it, is absolutely insane.
They aren’t requiring a specific exam. They are just requiring a doctor to sign off that they are biologically a boy or girl. This basically come down to lifting the underwear and looking down, which is what is normally done at an early are to check for abnormalities that may need to be addressed. No touching even need to take place. At a very young age, like pre 1 or so, they do a bit more detailed checking for issues. So if you have the same doc, they could sign off based on that alone.
Wow I thought Washington was inclusive
Depends on which side of the mountains
If you look at the map, pretty much the whole state outside of Seattle metro voted for it :(
This dumb bullshit better get overturned ffs
Kind of weird how people claim to love democracy but want to overturn the will of its voters when its something they disagree with.
Funny enough this one passing really goes to show how stupid most voters seem to be in WA now.
They literally want to overturn one law they voted for years ago and they want to have a state supreme court who have all agreed that the incoming millionaire tax can go ahead even if it breaks the states constitution.
The state Dems need some real DSA competition because at this point it’s all pointing towards corporatacy with a veiled control of an oligarchy.
I would ask our WA incumbents to reveal their minutes behind closed doors with lobbyists and full financial disclosures to be reviewed by a non political backed watchdog but the very same court we just voted in said “go pound cold wet sand”
Nah its not weird to want to overturn stupid harmful bullshit built on bigoted misinformation.
Democracy isn’t JUST voting for things and dealing with it. It’s the entire process within which there are mechanisms to overturn dumb illegal bullshit. Bullshit like subjecting young girls to molestation to soothe nazi hysteria.
Agreed with more DSA reps though no argument there.
Hey it’s the guy that voted Yes on repealing the millionaires tax in Washington. I wonder what other initiatives from Brian Heywood you voted Yes on. Maybe this one?
Going against a misleading discriminatory bill is not “going against the will of the people”. It’s funny that you’d say that, and in the same breath complain about the millionaire’s tax that you voted to repeal failing.
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The user you responded to exists to shit on the WA legislature, and let the Washington Lemmy community know they voted to repeal the millionaire tax. They’re more upset about that failing than the anti trans one passing.
Yeah, and this is why being an informed voter is so difficult. There was one initiative on my ballot that was worded like “create funding for programs to reduce homelessness.” Sounds nice, right? Sounds progressive? Sounds like something I’d want, for sure!
After googling it, it was basically just giving tons of money to cops… So that the cops can buy new tactical gear, to march into homeless camps like jackboots and beat the shit out of homeless people while torching all of their stuff. But sure, it’s “reducing homelessness.” I guess if we tear down the homeless camps and violently chase all of the homeless people out of town, there are no more homeless people? That’s how it works, right?
A bit of humor for the time: https://theneedling.com/2026/11/05/girls-finally-safe-now-that-they-have-to-show-adult-their-vagina-to-play-school-sports/
Also fuck Brian Heywood!
If you get an explanation, let me know. I’m dumbfounded by this one.
Nearly every other thing I voted on went the way I expected/voted, off the top of my head the only ones that didn’t were a state supreme court race and a local city election.
How did we get the other two state initiatives right but this one wrong??
