K.M.K. v. WIAA Wrestling Match – Alliance Defending Freedom screenshot
A Washington state high school wrestler has filed a lawsuit alleging that state and school officials placed her at risk by requiring her to compete against a transgender athlete and failed to respond adequately after she says she was sexually assaulted during the match.
The Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington on behalf of Kallie Keeler, a 16-year-old junior varsity wrestler at Rogers High School in Puyallup, and her mother, Stephanie Brown.
The lawsuit claims that Keeler was sexually assaulted during a third-place match at a Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association girls’ wrestling tournament last December by a wrestler from an opposing team whom she later learned was transgender.
The complaint alleges that the unnamed opponent, a wrestler from Emerald Ridge High School whom the lawsuit refers to using male pronouns, “shov[ed] [their] fingers through [Keeler’s] spandex clothing, digitally penetrating her vagina, and holding the position for several seconds.” The lawsuit claims Keeler allowed herself to be pinned in order to stop the alleged assault, resulting in a fourth-place finish.
According to the lawsuit, Keeler intended to tell her mother about the alleged assault immediately after the match but was too upset to do so. At that point, a coach from another team informed Keeler and Brown that her opponent was transgender.
Brown then emailed school officials to report the alleged assault. The lawsuit alleges that the school failed to take any action, prompting Keeler’s family to withdraw her from the wrestling team a month later.
Nearly two months after receiving Brown’s complaint, on January 30, the school reported the sexual assault allegations to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. The sheriff’s office conducted a criminal investigation, interviewing Keeler and Brown and reviewing video of the match recorded by Brown from the sidelines. The sheriff’s office later referred the case to the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office.
In February, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced an investigation into whether state and district officials responded appropriately to the allegations and whether the district violated the rights of female athletes by allowing transgender students to compete on teams that align with their gender identity.
On June 5, several months after opening its own investigation, the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office declined to file criminal charges, stating that any potential charges against the transgender wrestler “could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.” Prosecutors cited legal precedent holding that people who voluntarily participate in sports consent to “potentially offensive contact.”
The office concluded that any offensive or harmful touching alleged by Keeler was a “direct by-product of the game,” noting that contact involving the genital or anal area is common enough in wrestling to have its own nickname — “oil checking.”
Prosecutors told KING-TV they are still investigating whether school officials failed to promptly report the alleged assault to authorities.
After prosecutors declined to bring charges, ADF filed a lawsuit against the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Superintendent Chris Reykdal, the Puyallup School District, and several school officials.
The lawsuit alleges that those entities and officials violated Keeler’s rights under Title IX and the Fourteenth Amendment by allowing her to compete against a transgender athlete, failing to properly address her sexual assault allegations, and creating a hostile environment. It also claims officials failed to provide advance notice that Keeler would be competing against a transgender athlete, depriving her mother of the opportunity to opt her out of the match.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and asks the court to bar transgender athletes from competing against Keeler, require advance notice when she is scheduled to compete against a transgender athlete, restore any lost athletic eligibility, correct records reflecting losses to transgender competitors, and require sex discrimination and sexual harassment prevention training for relevant school employees.
As part of the lawsuit, ADF released video of the match, recorded by Brown and later posted to X by ADF President Kristen Waggoner. In the three-minute clip, Brown can be heard cheering on her daughter. At one point, the opposing wrestler’s arm appears between Keeler’s legs, and Keeler looks toward her mother and mouths something.
According to the lawsuit, Keeler later told her mother that her opponent’s fingers were “in my coochie,” although no audio of that alleged statement appears in the video.
As reported by Hemant Mehta in his The Friendly Atheist Substack, multiple wrestlers, coaches, and parents of youth wrestlers who reviewed the video said they saw nothing abnormal.
One wrestler told Mehta they did not “see any sexual assault whatsoever” and that every move in the video was executed as wrestlers are taught. Another said they saw a “leg lift on a turn that was high on the thigh, but it was pretty clearly just an exhausted wrestler using poor technique.”
A female wrestling coach described “oil checking” — when a finger ends up between a competitor’s butt cheeks — as a common mishap in the sport and said that, after watching the video, “nothing seemed malicious or intentional.” She also noted that no complaint was made to a referee or tournament official after the match, “which is typically what you do if you have a problem as serious as they’re claiming.”
Even responses to Waggoner’s X post included criticism from users who said they oppose transgender girls competing in women’s sports. “Conflating an otherwise normal wrestling match as sexual assault simply because of the identity of your opponent is absurd,” one X user wrote.
“This was a rather clumsy attempt to put the other wrestler into a cradle,” wrote another. “You may take issue with these two being matched against each other, but there is no evidence of any assault.”
A Washington ballot initiative would require student athletes in girls' sports to verify their sex through genital exams, genetic testing, or hormone analysis.
Student athletes in Washington State who wish to compete in girls' sports could face genital exams under an anti-transgender ballot initiative headed to voters in November.
The initiative would require students to compete on teams corresponding to their sex assigned at birth and verify their "biological sex" before being cleared to play. The measure would bring Washington in line with laws or regulations in 27 states that bar transgender girls from competing on female-designated middle and high school teams.
Under the initiative, students could verify their biological sex through a visual genital exam, a genetic test, or a blood test measuring testosterone levels. The genital exam, which could be conducted by a medical professional without physical contact, would likely be the simplest option to administer, according to Seattle NPR affiliate KUOW.
A Maine ballot initiative that would have barred transgender youth from competing on public school sports teams or using bathrooms that do not align with their sex assigned at birth will not appear on November's ballot.
The referendum was knocked off the ballot on May 26 after Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democratic candidate for governor, ruled that the group behind the measure, "Protect Girls Sports in Maine," had failed to collect enough valid petition signatures to place the question before voters.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who is running for the U.S. Senate, was booed by spectators when a contingent representing his office marched in the Boston Pride Parade on June 6, according to videos posted on social media.
Moulton, 47, has mounted a primary challenge against U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, 79, a fellow Massachusetts Democrat and longtime LGBTQ ally -- a bid that, a decade ago, might have been dismissed as a fool's errand.
However, concerns about Markey's age and whether he may decline physically or mentally while in office have made the race appear more competitive than many expected, reflecting broader unease among some Democrats about older politicians serving in elected office.
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