On November 4, more than 1.25 million Washingtonians voted yes on Initiative 638, which bars biological males from competing on K-12 girls' sports teams. It passed 56% to 44%. Five days later, the Seattle School Board voted unanimously to file a legal challenge against it.
The next day, Mayor Katie Wilson signed on.
Wilson — an open socialist running a major American city — released a statement backing the board's lawsuit: "I support the Seattle Public Schools Board's decision to challenge Initiative 638, because every young person in Seattle deserves to thrive as their authentic self." That's the sitting mayor of Seattle telling more than a million voters that their ballots don't count because she has feelings about authenticity.
Seattle School Board Director Joe Mizrahi laid out the board's reasoning in terms that would make any commissar proud. "These laws reflect values our communities have fought for and overwhelmingly support," he said of the existing policies I-638 was designed to override. Then he added the quiet part: "We don't see a way to implement Initiative 638 without violating those vital protections."
Translation: We don't see a way to implement the law the voters just passed, so we won't.
The board isn't alone. As RedState reported, the ACLU of Washington, Legal Voice, and Pacifica Law Group filed a separate lawsuit in King County court. Their plaintiffs include the Washington Education Association teachers union, the TransFamilies advocacy group, and several anonymous parents. The goal is to block the law before its December 3 implementation date — barely a month after voters approved it.
This is happening in a state where two other conservative-backed initiatives failed on the same ballot. Republicans lost several state Legislature seats. Washington voters weren't on some right-wing bender. They looked at one specific question — should biological males play on girls' sports teams in K-12 — and 56% of them said no. The U.S. Supreme Court reached the same conclusion back in June when it upheld sex-based sports categories.
School choice advocate Corey DeAngelis framed the response the way most people were thinking: "The people already voted to keep boys out of girls' sports. Why do you hate Democracy, tyrant?"
Independent journalist Andy Ngo pointed to the broader pattern: "Democrats in Washington state have no problem undermining democracy and civil rights when it suits their ends." Darren Littell, spokesman for Let's Go Washington — the group behind the initiative — put it more bluntly: "They want boys in girls' sports at all costs, and they are willing to undermine democracy to get them there."
Wilson's office framed the lawsuit as protecting students. Mizrahi called I-638 a threat to "vital protections." Neither addressed the fact that voters chose this law by a twelve-point margin in a state that went blue up and down the rest of the ballot. The word "mandate" gets thrown around loosely in politics. A twelve-point margin on a single-issue ballot measure in a progressive state is what an actual one looks like.
The implementation date is December 3. The lawsuits were filed nine days before that deadline. One anonymous commenter on social media summarized the situation: "No kings, Katie. You are a threat to democracy."
Fifty-six percent. Twelve points. One month to block it all.
