Trans youth and their allies suffered a significant blow in the 2026 midterms as voters in two blue states approved ballot measures to sharply restrict trans rights, including youth access to sports.
Voters in both Colorado and Washington state approved ballot measures to limit student athletes to playing on teams “designated” for their “biological sex” as assigned at birth. Supporters of the measures billed them as necessary to protect cisgender women and girls, but critics warned they would open the door to dangerous consequences — permitting, or even requiring, invasive genital exams of girls seeking to play sports.
In Colorado, another separate measure, which also passed, banned gender-affirming surgery for trans youth.
The results in Colorado and Washington were startling due to how reliably blue and LGBTQ-friendly both states have run in recent years. Both states rank among the highest in the nation in supporting gender identity, according to think tank The Movement Advancement Project.
The results in Colorado were relatively narrow, with about 52% of voters supporting passage of each measure. Washington voters gave their measure broader leeway, with just under 57% supporting passage.
Two other states — Arizona and Nebraska — also passed ballot measures to ban trans youth from playing sports. Missouri voters, however, shot down a ballot measure that wrapped together a ban on gender-affirming care for youth with an attempt to repeal the state’s constitutional right to abortion, which voters passed by ballot measure in 2024.
It was an apparently contradictory result for an election night that also saw what has been called a “blue tsunami,” with Democrats reclaiming both chambers of Congress, flipping governorships in at least five states and winning majorities in previously red state legislatures.
But trans rights were a hot-button issue this cycle. Conservatives have made trans rights, and particularly the subject of trans women and girls in sports, a political stalking horse during the last two elections. Republicans spent an estimated $183 million on TV ads through Oct. 25 attacking Democrats for supporting transgender rights, according to ABC News. Some Democrats in turn shied away from the issue, releasing ads distancing themselves from support for trans rights.
“We’re going to have to really continue to just hold folks in leadership accountable to ensuring that we are repealing policies that have harmed our communities,” Mariah Moore, director of programs for the Transgender Law Center, said Wednesday morning. “It’s going to be important to make sure that the folks that we elected are truly acting as agents of change.”
She praised candidates who had actively affirmed their support for trans rights on the campaign trail, like Peggy Flanagan and Abdul El-Sayed, who won their races in Minnesota and Michigan, respectively.
“They were not willing to throw trans people under the bus, and I think that that’s true leadership,” Moore said. “They said that we don’t need to scapegoat anyone to win.”
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court upheld state bans on trans youth in sports in a joint ruling that covered two cases, Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. BPJ. In a consolidated opinion confirming that such laws did not violate either Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bars sex discrimination in sports or the equal protection clause of the Constitution, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority, “[M]ay schools determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex? The answer is yes.”
As of October 2026, 29 states effectively banned transgender youth from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity.
“While some of the results may be disappointing,” Moore said, “I think that [Tuesday] night really just reinforced the fact that we know that a better future is possible, and that when we come together to fight, we win.”