Voters Back Anti-Trans Ballot Measures in Four States
The measures restrict trans students' access to sports and school facilities and limit gender-affirming surgery for minors.
Voters in at least four states have backed a slew of anti-transgender ballot measures that restrict transgender athletes’ participation in sports, limit trans students’ access to gender-specific facilities, or bar minors from obtaining certain gender-affirming surgeries.
Arizona voters backed Proposition 318, a measure requiring schools and athletic associations to designate teams as male, female, or co-ed based on athletes’ sex assigned at birth. The measure also bars students, athletes, employees, and others from joining teams or using school and athletic association facilities, including restrooms, designated for a sex different from the one they were assigned at birth.
With 94% of votes counted, the measure is leading with 58.9% of the vote.
In Nebraska, 67.9% of voters approved a similar measure targeting trans athletes. The measure amends the state constitution to require schools to designate school-sponsored sports teams as male, female, or co-ed and prohibits athletes assigned male at birth from competing on female teams.
Even in so-called “blue” states, where Democrats are usually favored, ballot measures imposing transgender sports restrictions appeared to have been overwhelmingly approved by voters.
In Washington State, Measure 638 prohibits students assigned male at birth from competing on female-designated sports teams and requires students wishing to compete on those teams to provide a statement from a health care provider verifying their sex. With 78% of votes counted, the measure was leading with 56.8% of the vote.
On the same ballot, voters appeared to have rejected Measure 1, which sought to restore a repealed law giving parents the right to be notified about medical services offered to their child at school and to opt their child out of certain classes. The “no” vote was leading 52% to 48%.
Similarly, in Colorado, voters approved Proposition 134, which bars students from participating on sports teams that don’t align with their assigned sex at birth and requires schools, colleges, and athletic associations to segregate sports teams based on athletes’ assigned sex at birth. The measure passed 52% to 48%.
Colorado voters also approved Proposition 135, which prohibits minors from obtaining surgery solely for the purpose of gender transition. The measure also passed 52% to 48%.
However, 55.4% of Missouri voters rejected Amendment 3, which would have amended the state constitution to repeal the right to abortion, with limited exceptions, and prohibit minors from obtaining gender-affirming procedures. Missouri law already restricts gender-affirming care for minors, and the amendment would have enshrined a prohibition in the state constitution.
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, a senior vice president at The Trevor Project and a transgender rights activist, told The Advocate that the 2026 midterm elections were a “paradox.” Republican candidates — many of whom leaned into anti-transgender attack ads — lost even as voters in several states backed restrictions targeting transgender people.
“I think the way that you can understand these kinds of seeming contradictions is that most Americans don’t have hatred in their heart for trans people, but they still have to get to know us,” Heng-Lehtinen said, noting that a recent survey found that 71% of Americans say they’ve never met a trans person.
“When you don’t feel like you personally know somebody in a community, then it’s easier to fall for myths and think that they’re real,” he said. “And that’s what we saw with trans health care and trans sports being on the ballot. Those are issues where hundreds of millions of dollars was spent to put these lies and misinformation in front of everyday Americans.”
Point of Pride, a national trans support organization, hailed the defeat of anti-transgender Republican candidates for Congress but lamented the passage of several ballot measures. Aydian Dowling, the group’s co-founder and chief advancement officer, cited a report by The 19th that Elon Musk’s America PAC spent $100 million on anti-trans ads in an effort to swing support toward right-wing candidates.
“They spent $100 million trying to make trans people the bogeyman. Voters didn’t buy it,” Dowling said. “That money bought a lot of airtime then lost most of the Senate races it targeted. This election was a rebuke to every politician who thought stripping away people’s rights was a shortcut to power.
“But some of the same voters who turned those candidates away also voted to keep trans girls off their school teams. Sadly, fear still works when it’s aimed at kids,” Dowling added. “We are not political props or convenient scapegoats for problems politicians refuse to solve. We’re people building families, pursuing careers, contributing to our communities and shaping our own futures. We’ve been doing that long before this election, and we’ll be doing it long after.”
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