Kennewick board to vote on supporting trans athlete rule change
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kennewick will consider backing WIAA amendment to create open sports category
- Amendment would split girls and open divisions and may require birth or medical proof
- Board frames support as protecting girls sports and urges districts to join coalition
The Kennewick School Board on Wednesday will consider backing a Western Washington school district’s proposal to place some transgender athletes into an “open” category.
They would be the first school board in the Tri-Cities to vote on the issue.
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association has rules in its handbook allowing athletes to “participate in programs consistent with their gender identity or the gender most consistently expressed.” But some school districts have been trying to change that.
Last spring, WIAA’s representative assembly nearly passed an amendment that would have limited participation in girls sports to students born “biologically female.”
It was an advisory vote only, since the proposed change didn’t align with Washington state law, but it was a near victory for parents rights groups looking to make substantial changes to which gendered sports that queer student-athletes are allowed to participate in.
The Lynden School District is sponsoring this latest amendment to WIAA’s handbook, said Kennewick School Board President Gabe Galbraith. It’s nearly identical to last spring’s effort, which would divide sports into “girls category” and an “open category.”
That means the WIAA could be gearing up for another vote in spring 2026.
“It still allows for all students to participate in sports, but protects our girls,” said Galbraith. The amendment was modeled after Alaska’s program widening boys sports to an “open” model.
But it would also mean students who express feminine gender may need to show a birth certificate or medical affidavit to prove their biological sex. Student-athletes in Washington are already required to undergo regular physical examinations.
Kennewick’s resolution states that the amendment “promotes WIAA’s mission to provide opportunities for all students to excel in athletics, performing arts and other activities while promoting fair play, sportsmanship and teamwork.”
It also calls on other districts to join in supporting the amendment, and that the board “affirms its commitment to preserving fairness in competition, protecting the integrity of girls’ sports and ensuring physical safety in interscholastic athletics.”
The school board previously adopted a resolution that defined sex as “biological male or biological female as determined at birth.”
Kennewick’s school board has been one of the state’s leading voices in advocating for reforms around transgender students.
Critics of Washington’s laws were spurred to action after a trans athlete took home the 2024 2A girls state 400-meter championship, which propelled the East Valley High School girls track team to a first-place finish.
State Superintendent Chris Reykdal has said about five to 10 athletes out of a quarter million competitors across the state are likely transgender.
State demographics data does not discriminate transgender students from their cisgender peers, and state law guarantees the rights of students to be treated consistent with their gender identity while at school.
But parents rights advocates say girls sports are “under attack” and that trans girls in particular have an unfair advantage over their peers in sports, as evidence in the East Valley teen’s state repeat championship.
One voter initiative currently gathering signatures by conservative group Let’s Go Washington would work in tandem with the WIAA amendment by changing state law to define “biologically male” athletes and prohibit them from competing with or against cisgender students in certain sports.
In recent weeks, those signature gatherers have faced dozens of alleged instances of attacks and harassment outside of grocery stores and supermarkets.
Last year, Kennewick coaches rallied the school board to pass a resolution, which said it was committed to “protecting female sports” and that “biological males should not participate in biological females sports.”
In the spring, the board filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education claiming Reykdal, Washington OSPI and the WIAA were engaging in sex-based discrimination.
The district is caught between dueling Washington state laws and executive orders by the Trump administration that detail who can and cannot use which locker rooms and participate on which sports teams.
But U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights office of civil rights declined to investigate their complaint over a lack of jurisdiction. Galbraith says the intent was mostly to raise awareness about what's been happening throughout the state, including an ongoing federal probe into the La Center School District.
Many are also watching to see how the courts will weigh on the issue, including how the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on Idaho’s law banning trans women and girls from playing in sports divisions that align with their gender identity.
This story was originally published October 21, 2025 at 12:42 PM.
