Right wing mega-millionaire Brian Heywood has a big problem on his hands.
He and his operatives are so obsessed with controlling other people’s bodies and infringing on other people’s freedoms that they apparently never considered the ramifications of the enforcement mechanism they cooked up to bar trans girls from participating in girls’ sports.
Ever since Washington Families For Freedom pointed out that their IL26-638 effectively requires young people who want to participate in girls’ sports to prove they have vulvar anatomy, Heywood and Company have been in damage control mode.
Heywood and his spokesman are now openly denying they’re interested in what’s inside young girls’ pants, even though their initiative most certainly is.
Before we discuss their reactions, let’s first take a look at the language of IL26-638.
Here’s Section 3 of the measure:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 28A.600 RCW to read as follows:
(1) Policies, procedures, rules, and other requirements adopted in accordance with RCW 28A.600.200 by a school district board of directors or a voluntary nonprofit entity must prohibit biologically male students from competing with and against female students in athletic activities with separate classifications for male and female students if the athletic activity is:
(a) Intended for female students only; and
(b) An individual or team competition activity.
(2) A student who elects to participate in individual or team competition activities intended for female students only governed under subsection (1) of this section shall provide, as part of the required routine sports physical examination, a health examination and consent form or other statement signed by the student’s personal health care provider that verifies the student’s biological sex, relying only on one or more of the following: The student’s reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels.
The highlighted portion is the critical bit. The measure requires “a health examination… that verifies the student’s biological sex.” Since most young girls’ families probably won’t have genetic tests or bloodwork that would show testosterone levels, the “verification” will be “a health examination” that attests to “the student’s reproductive anatomy.”
In other words, adults looking to see if young girls have vulvas and vaginas.
That’s what that means.
The initiative tries to make this new requirement sound normal — the word “routine” is even used in Section 3 — but what’s being mandated here is quite invasive.
Boys are exempt, by the way. Only Washington girls would be subjected to this new “verification” regime — because this is all about power and control.
Elizabeth Wareing, a mom of two girls and police detective for nearly thirty years, spoke at a press conference organized by our Washington Families For Freedom coalition last month and said:
“I spent nine years investigating hate crime and bias incidents, and many other years investigating crimes against children, sexual assault and domestic violence. Initiative IL26-638 would force girls to prove their sex before participating in sports, including being forced to expose their genitals to an adult, if they don’t have other documentation. This requirement would disproportionately affect children who don’t have documentation or regular access to a physician.”
“In addition to violating a child’s dignity, I believe there is a high potential for sexual abuse under circumstances such as these. According to the CDC, nearly one in four girls experience sexual violence before the age of eighteen in this country. Sexual predators often set themselves up as authority figures to give themselves more power and access to their victims. I believe this initiative would increase the risk of sexual abuse for girls participating in sports.”
Let’s Go Washington’s response has been very revealing.
“What’s so disgusting about that is they can just shout out that they’re going to make little girls take their pants down before they can play a soccer game,” whined Hallie Balch, Brian Heywood’s spokeswoman, in a comment to The Center Square. “And people just run with that. It’s so egregious what they’re saying. They’re just putting this incendiary idea in the people’s minds, and it has absolutely nothing to do with what we’re talking about.”
Balch may not want to talk about what’s in Section 3 of IL26-638 and what the verification regime entails, but we believe it’s vital that Washingtonians know all about what they’ll be voting on.
This is Let’s Go Washington’s initiative. They drafted it and they own what’s in it.
“To be very honest we have zero interest in what is in your pants,” Heywood added in a tweet posted on December 11th. “We do you think you should not play on a high school girls volleyball team and should stay the heck out of their changing rooms.”
Brian, if you feel the need to publicly say things like: “To be very honest we have zero interest in what is in your pants,” then you have a problem. A huge problem. It’s a fact that IL26-638 says what’s excerpted above, and credible analysis of that provision suggests it will increase the risk of sexual abuse for girls participating in sports. That’s horrifying.
Fortunately, we can prevent Heywood’s invasive genital exams by rejecting IL26-638 next November. To help Permanent Defense defeat this awful measure, you can make a donation here.
