The editorial board of The Columbian, the largest newspaper in Southwest Washington, has published an editorial reacting to the submission of signatures for IL26-638, one of two “culture war” ballot measures that right wing mega-millionaire Brian Heywood is forcing a statewide vote on in 2026. The board, which is not particularly liberal or progressive, concluded that “targeting transgender people diminishes us,” writing:

But hyperbole ignores the fact that gender identity is a difficult and painful question for many, particularly teens going through puberty; that gender-affirming care often includes testosterone blockers that inhibit athletic advantages; and that there remain few transgender athletes competing in high schools.

Those aspects and the impact on female athletes who compete against biological boys or might be displaced by them on the team roster must be considered without rhetoric that demonizes transgender athletes. Targeting transgender people as “others” — whether in high school athletics or the workplace or the corner coffee shop — diminishes us as a society.

Too often, a stated desire to “protect female athletes” is code for discrimination targeting transgender people. In the process, it obfuscates what could be productive societal discussions about balancing the rights of all athletes.

Heywood, of course, doesn’t care about diminishing society. He is looking for a “wedge issue” that could give his initiative factory a win, after getting crushed in the 2024 presidential election with voters’ rejection of three initiatives he spearheaded to repeal the Climate Commitment Act, defund the Education Legacy Trust, and sabotage the WA Cares Fund.

Washingtonians have previously voted to uphold civil unions, marriage equality, and comprehensive sexual health education, and we believe they’ll vote to uphold protections for transgender people, too. It’s been twenty years since we changed our law against discrimination to protect LGBTQ+ people, and we’re not going back, no matter how badly Brian Heywood and his ilk pine for a return to a time when people with different sexual orientations lacked legal protections.