To the Editor:
As a member of the League of Women Voters Bellingham-Whatcom County and Indivisible Bellingham, I recently attended a community panel co-hosted by both groups in opposition to two Initiatives IL26-001 and IL26-638. I would like to focus on the latter, because I came away struck by a question that deserves more attention: What do we mean when we say youth sports should be fair?
We accept that young athletes have advantages and disadvantages unrelated to gender.
Some girls have access to private coaching, year-round training, expensive equipment and extensive family support. Others do not.
Some are exceptionally tall for basketball, naturally fast for track or possess unusual strength, coordination or endurance. We don’t disqualify them because those characteristics may give them an advantage.
At the panel, a now-adult transgender woman described playing soccer as a student. She said she did not receive negative comments from her classmates — and she certainly didn’t win every game. Her experience reminded me that being transgender does not automatically make someone an exceptional athlete.
Yet IL26-638 would require every girl seeking to compete in a girls’ school sport to obtain a health care provider’s statement verifying anatomical gender, subjecting every girl who wants to compete to scrutiny of her body.
Please protect our children and vote No.
—Diane Smith, Bellingham; Sept. 30, 2026