New WA initiatives seek to undo rewrite of parental rights law, block trans girls in sports

Let’s Go Washington announced it will gather signatures for two initiatives aimed at reinforcing parental rights and blocking transgender girls from competing in girls' sports. The group must collect 308,911 signatures by January 2 to present these measures to the state Legislature. This announcement follows a contentious legislative session where Democratic lawmakers revised a previous parental rights law, House Bill 1296, which limited parental access to student medical records. Hedge fund manager Brian Heywood, leading the initiative, declared, “We don’t co-parent with the government,” underscoring the group's stance on parental autonomy. State Rep.

Monica Stonier criticized Heywood’s proposal for promoting divisive narratives rather than focusing on facts. The initiatives arise amid scrutiny from the Trump administration regarding gender inclusion policies in Washington schools. The proposed initiatives aim to repeal changes made by House Bill 1296, which also codified certain student rights while adding new parental rights. If successful in gathering signatures, lawmakers can either pass the initiatives as proposed or send them to voters for a decision in the next general election.