Washington’s top public education official is facing scrutiny after offering an unusual defense of transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports: that teenagers’ brains haven’t finished developing.
Chris Reykdal, Washington’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, made the comments during an appearance on the Seattle radio program “Jake and Spike,” hosted by Jake Skorheim. The conversation centered on Initiative 638, a measure on the Nov. 3 ballot that would bar biological males from competing in K-12 girls’ sports in the state.
Skorheim raised a specific incident at Camas High School in southern Washington, where members of the girls cross country team walked off the start line this past Tuesday to protest having to compete against a male athlete.
Reykdal responded by framing the issue as one of inclusion. “Let’s face it, this is happening across the country, where we’ve empowered young people to make important decisions,” he said. “And 99% of the time, they’re good friends and colleagues, and they respect their transgender colleagues. But some don’t agree with it, and that’s their right to express that.”
He went on to frame the policy question as a tradeoff between inclusion and verification. “The much larger issue here is: Can we accommodate 10, 12, 15 kids a year and make them feel included? Or do we have to go through an initiative process where every single girl has to prove, through one of three methods, that she’s a girl in order to participate?” Reykdal said.
The Camas Case
Skorheim pressed further on the specific circumstances at Camas, noting that the athlete in question had placed 76th in a boys cross-country race earlier in the season before finishing second in a varsity girls meet. He noted that girls on the Camas team had forfeited the race because, in his words, they had no chance of winning.
Reykdal’s response drew on his own experience as a parent. “Well, I raised two kids, and one of them was a daughter in sports. And my take is, you have a choice to make. You’re going to compete and do the best you can and embrace your colleagues, or you’re going to walk off and make a statement. And that’s okay, too,” he said.
When Skorheim asked directly whether it would seem fair if his own daughter had to race against the same athlete who had placed 76th in a boys’ field, Reykdal replied: “I don’t see it that way, Jake. I just don’t. These are young, developing people whose brains aren’t going to fully develop until they’re 25.”
Background on I-638
Initiative 638 would require Washington schools to designate K-12 sports teams by biological sex, effectively excluding transgender girls from girls’ divisions. The measure goes before voters on Nov. 3. Last year, transgender athletes won girls’ state track-and-field championships in Washington, Oregon and California, a point frequently raised by supporters of the initiative.
The Camas protest is one of several recent incidents in Washington where girls and their families have publicly objected to competing against transgender athletes, arguing that biological differences create an unfair playing field regardless of goodwill between teammates.
