What A Day - When Gender Identity is on The Ballot

Episode Date: October 6, 2026

This midterm election introduces a surprising ballot measure for Washington State voters to weigh in on -- whether to require girls to undergo genital inspections if they want to play sports. Jane speaks with Washington State House Speaker Laurie Jenkins about who's behind getting the issue on the ballot and what Washingtonians are saying about it.Show Notes: Call Congress – 202-224-3121 Subscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/y4y2e9jy What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcast Follow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/ For a transcript of this episode, please email [e-mail]

The fact that every girl in this state is going to have to have an invasive medical exam. It's shocking and hard for people to believe that, which is one of our challenges. But I think that message is starting to come through to people and people are kind of picking up and listening. And like, oh my, we can't have that. It's Tuesday, October 6th. I'm Jane Koston, and this is what a day. California Democratic governor Gavin Newsom went on social media to called President Donald Trump, quote, deranged and dangerous.

After the president held a campaign rally in Nebraska last night, and things got weird. And again, remember, with the war, it's just artificial, it's a little bit high, it's a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let him take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego. That's, this is a very small price to pay. And it's going to be open with very soon.

So Trump there was talking about the war in Iran and saying that the high price of oil and gas was fine because otherwise Iran might bomb West Coast cities. But the crowd seemed pretty into West Coast cities getting bombed. Newsom accused the president of, quote, saying our foreign enemies should take out Los Angeles and San Diego. White House communications director Stephen Chung said on social media today that Trump was, quote, clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened of a nuclear Iraq. Iran hadn't been stopped, America is safer because of the president. But can we go back to why all of those people are cheering for the obliteration of American cities? Trump has approved the execution by firing squad of a former army psychiatrist. The death row inmate killed 13 people and injured more than 30 others during a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009.

Trump's approval triggers a series of procedural steps towards carrying out the execution. the inmate could potentially delay the sentencing for years by filing a habeas corpus appeal in the civilian federal court system. The U.S. military has not carried out the death penalty since 1961. Maryland Democratic Representative Jimmy Raskin wants to create a permanent exhibit on Donald Trump's authoritarian tendencies in the nation's capital. Whataday has learned exclusively. Raskin plans to introduce the, quote, preserving and remembering the history of Trump and other tyrants act. His office told Whataday. The bill would authorize $5 million for the Smithsonian to collect the Trumpian science outside the American History Museum and display them as artifacts, quote, reflecting the rise of governmental propaganda, corruption, and authoritarianism, according to the bill's text.

But I want to talk about Washington State and a ballot measure that would require girls, all girls, to undergo genital inspections if they want to play sports. joining me is Washington State Speaker Lori Jenkins. Speaker Lori Jenkins, welcome to what a day. It's great to be here. Thank you for having me. So I got to ask, why is the state of Washington voting on sex tests for girls and on repealing privacy protections for children? Very scary, right? Washington is one of those states who has a long and storied history as having an initiative process where people can do initiatives and turn like the voters of the state into a legislature where they vote on these things. In Washington right now we have a multi-billionaire kind of mega aligned guy named Brian Haywood

who has been over the last number of years paying to put things on the ballot directly rather than really coming to the legislature to work out issues. And so for example, last he put three initiatives on the ballot, one to make it so he wouldn't have to pay as many taxes personally, a second one to repeal long-term care in Washington, and a third thing to repeal our Climate Commitment Act. He lost all three of those. And so this year, he has three initiatives on the ballot, and two of those are the ones that you referenced. You know, his connection to the MAGA community and his doing this this year is really a lot about kind of distracting people. And like, don't think about how much your health care is costing.

Don't think about how much gas is costing, how much home prices are going up, how much food is costing. Think about this very small group of targeted kids and let's target them some more. Let's actually talk about these two proposals. And I'll talk about the one that I think grabbed a lot of attention, grabbed my attention, first of all, which is about a mandatory sex verification for female athletes and just female athletes I'll note. So Washington State's proposal would, apparently there are similar proposals in Arizona and Colorado, but Washington States only applies to girls sports. It's the only initiative with a direct bearing on girls who are not trans. Under the state's proposal, every year. girl in kindergarten through 12th grade will have to have her sex assigned at birth verified by a doctor, either through genetic or hormone tests or an examination of her reproductive anatomy to be eligible to play girls' sports. Like, this seems insane, like wildly exploitative. And also, like, there are a host of reason why any number of girls who are not trans would not want to do this, also for the girls who are trans. This is incredibly embarrassing. And also, there aren't very many

trans girls playing sports in the state of Washington or anywhere else anyway. So to your point, this does seem like a massive distraction effort, but how did it get this far? Like, how did we get to a point where there is a ballot issue with millions of dollars behind it in the state of Washington, which I think many people would think of as being a very progressive state? Yeah, yeah, we have a really long history of being a progressive state. We have turned back many, many anti-LGBQ initiatives. But as I said, anyone can basically file a piece of legislation to the people or to the legislature, gather signatures.

The way this happened is he's a multi-millionaire, and he just pays people to go out and gather signatures and put these things on the ballot. And so anybody can do that. And then it ends up going to the people. Now, these two initiatives were called initiatives to the legislature. And so they did come to us first, the legislature first, and our only choice is to adopt them as is, to reject them, or if we want to, we can adopt an alternative and put them both on the ballot. After talking to the community and engaging on kind of the outlandish,

of both of these, we just couldn't find a way to fix them or do anything even remotely appropriate based on what had been proposed. You did a really good job, Jane, of describing all of the problems with this is initiative 638. And I guess I just will note that for those, you know, our Washington an interscholastic athletic association, which regulates all high school sports, says there are about 10 transgender youth playing in sports in this state, very small number. And in exchange for doing this, what we're going to do is make every single girl tens of thousands of girls undergo invasive medical exams. And that's what the initiative itself says. I've got to hear. somewhere I could actually read the...

Yeah, that would actually be incredibly helpful because I think it's really worth drawing this out because this is not just about like, oh, you have to get a birth certificate because the bill states that, you know, the argument behind the bill is because Washington State permits people to amend their birth certificates. A birth certificate won't work. And typically the types of exams you get before you start playing sports, don't look at your genitalia. So this is a very specific type of exam.

So I would love you actually to read the bill text. Yeah. Well, so this part of the initiative says, and I'm going to quote, that the examination is of, in quotes, reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or endogenously produced testosterone as a part, end quote, as a part of their school physicals. Now, right now, all the American Academy of Pediatrics, of family physicians, all the physicians who do school physical say, we do not do this. This is not part of a school exam. The school exams are to make sure that you're cardiovascularly fit enough or not at risk that something bad is going to happen when you're

playing sports. And so this would be an added invasive exam. They also point out, the physicians point out, this is a medically unnecessary thing. So there's going to be no insurance that pays for such a thing. There is no Washington state doesn't pay for these exams, nor do we have the money to pay for them. And what's even worse, there are 150,000 estimated girls in this state who actually don't have a regular physician. They couldn't get one of these if they wanted to. The over-encompassing way that Brian Haywood is trying to solve this problem that is not, I mean, I really don't think it's a problem, but others could disagree with this. But the trade-off to try and find 10 kids who are playing sports and who are trans to make every single

girl in this state go through an exam like this is just ludicrous. And it's not, I don't think, what Washington stands for. Yeah, I was also struck by how Justin Custerton, who is the assistant executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which controls sports in the state of Washington, made the point that he could not explain how the requirements for sex verification would be enforced

if the initiative were to pass. He said, quote, there will have to be broader conversations with other entities to provide that guidance. There's going to have to be conversations with the medical professionals across the state as to what is going to be required and what that looks like.

So, even Even beyond the ludicrous nature of this legislation, the people who seem to be in support of the legislation or the people who would be asked to make it happen don't know how they do so. Which, I mean, this does seem to your point about a massive piece of government overreach in search of a purpose, but also they wouldn't know how to do any of this anyway. Yeah, this is exactly true. And, you know, one of the points that's made is it, you know, when it says, well, you should do genetic testing. Okay, well, what is it that you should test?

Right? And you should do an invasive medical exam. And what exactly are you supposed to look for? I know people believe generally that it's obvious. You know it. You know it when you see it. When you talk to the healthcare professions, they are like, this is not true. we would not even know what we were supposed to be doing here.

This is very much like the other initiative that's on the ballot, 001, is a so-called parental rights initiative. But, you know, when the Seattle Times did an editorial about this urging people to vote, no, they fully interviewed the proponents of this initiative. And they asked them, please give us an example in Washington of where this initiative would address the problem that you're talking about. And they could not give the Seattle Times a single real example, not a single one of a problem that they were trying to solve, which is further evidence that this is about taking a small group of kids that aren't very well

understood and that are already really at risk. And let's just bully and target them more as a way to distract what the federal government is actually doing to hurt people right now. We'll get back to my conversation with Speaker Jenkins in just a moment. What a day is brought to you by Acorns. Where is your money going? And what could it be doing for your future? With Acorns, you're in charge. Acorns is easy.

You can sign up in minutes and start automatically investing your spare money, even if all you've got is spare change. Acorns grows with you, whether you're just starting out or thinking about settling down, ACORN supports your big and small goals across every life stage. The ACORN's potential screen shows you the power of compounding and how your money could grow over time. Plus, you can quickly adjust how much you're investing every day, week, or month to make sure you're building toward your goals. I love how ACORN's makes investment as easy as doing nothing. With ACORNS, your money grows for you. Sign up now and join over 14 million

people already investing with ACORN's. New customers get a $20 bonus investment just for signing up. It takes about two minutes, and it could be the easiest $20 you'll ever earn. Head to acorns.com slash wad. That's acorns.orgns.com. slash wad that claim your $20 bonus today. Acorns.com slash wad. Limited time offer. Terms and conditions apply.

See acorns.com slash terms for details. Paid non-client endorsement. Compensation provides incentive to positively promote acorns. Tier 2 compensation provided. Potential subject to various factors such as customers' accounts, age, and investment settings. does not include Acorns fees. Results do not predict or represent the performance of any Acorn's portfolio.

Investment results will vary. Investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors, LLC, and SEC registered investment advisor. View important disclosures at Acorns.com slash Wad. This episode of Whataday is brought to you by our friends at Wildgrain. Wild grain delivers sourdough breads, seasonal pastries, and French butter made by small independent bakeries right to your door. Everything baked straight from frozen in 25 minutes or less. with simple, recognizable ingredients you can pronounce. So you can have warm bakery-quality goods

whenever you want them without worrying about them going stale. From waffles to baguettes to delicious apple cider donuts, I've loved how Wildgrain puts a bakery in my kitchen. If you're looking for an easy way to enjoy bakery-quality food at home, I definitely recommend giving Wild Green a try. The fan favorite apple cider donuts, the ones I mentioned earlier, and other fall seasonal products are back for a limited time, so make sure you order before they sell out. Visit Wildgren. dot com slash wad to get $30 off your first box plus free croissants for life. Again, that's wildgren.com slash wad for $30 off your first box and free croissants for life or use promo code Wad at checkout.

Let's get back to my conversation with Washington State Speaker, Lori Jenkins. Well, let's talk about that legislation, which is called the Washington Declaration of Parental and Legal Guardian Rights. So this legislation would be reenacting old legislation. The point of the legislation, is to essentially repeal privacy rights for kids. So the legislation going through it, it would restore specific parental notification rights for medical services provided to a child at school, but also it would repeal rights that

have been added, which included rights related to anti-discrimination protections, harassing, and bullying complaint procedures, and school language access notices. And something that interested me about this legislation, because I'm sure a lot of people listening might be like, you know, I'm a parent. I want to hear everything that's happening to my kid. But also some of these protections are because some children endure abuse by their parents and caregivers. And to the point of like looking for a problem in addition, I was interested in the League of Women Voters put out, you know, we're saying no on this legislation because the legislation itself is remarkably poorly written. But I know that this is a little bit complicated, but can you explain more about this particular bill? This has a bit of a storied history.

I can tell. There was an initiative, I think, three years ago to establish parental rights. The legislature actually, it was sent to the legislature. The legislature adopted it as is. And in all of our floor debate, we said, listen, folks have raised that this could create a lot of problems. There are, you know, it's not well defined, kind of like the initiative now. And so we'll come back and fix it if that turns out to be true. So then we implemented it.

We heard from school districts, parents, and others that it was not implementable and that it was creating all kinds of challenges. And so we amended it. This initiative is an attempt. They say it's an attempt just to return to the initial bill. But in fact, it just adopts, of all places, a Louisiana. statute and places a Louisiana statute here in Washington, word for word. And so, again, these initiatives are, and that's why initiatives are very challenging, because it's filled with unintended consequences.

Right, like repealing protections for children relating to harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Also, it would repeal the right to have a child receive a public education in an environment where discrimination based on a protected class is prohibited. Like, I'm going to guess that the people who want more rights to what their child is doing in school probably also want their child to be protected from discrimination in school. Yeah. Well, this is why the PTA is opposed to it, the League of Women Voters. Right.

The bill that we passed actually clarified and said, for example, parents should get immediate notice if there is an allegation about a crime being committed at school. against their child. This initiative, I don't know if it's intentional or not, but it repeals that. It just says, parent should get noticed sometime about this, maybe. It's just very, you know, obscure in that way. It also then does require, though, like the current law says, hey, listen, if a parent or a caregiver has been accused of abuse of a child, they cannot get the child's records immediately. this wipes that away. And so an abuse, a person who's accused of abuse, who's under criminal investigation, could get all of a child's records. The other thing, I mean, the thing that this

initiative is targeting, which I disagree with completely, is it's trying to out LGBTQ students basically. And to say that, you know, when you have, we talk to lots of educators. And again, this is why the PTA opposes this, where young people come and talk to a school counselor or a teacher, find a trusted person to say, I think I'm gay, I think I'm trans, I don't know, I think my family might kick me out, I don't know what to do. Those educators are excellent at working with children and with family members to try to bridge that divide. But we also know that 40% of homeless youth in Washington State are LGBTQ and report that they were kicked out of their home

because their family found that out about them. This is going to contribute to that kind of abuse and to that kind of negative consequence for kids. So again, these initiatives are just so broad and overcapped, so much that there can be conversations that we have about trans children and how to engage with trans children. There's a lot of education and conversation to be had there. But to overcapture on 638 all the girls who want to play sports in this state, when I was

a kid, I was one of those, like forcing me or anybody else to have done that. a lot of girls are just not going to participate or they're not going to have the money to participate. And likewise, in 001, the kids that are facing severe abuse in their home, they're the ones who are most at risk. And I think Washingtonians, if they understand that, which is a big if, will turn these down. I actually wanted to ask about that because it's taken me roughly 15. minutes to attempt to describe with you these two pieces of legislation. I do this for a living. And I know that I, you know, I live in California. I've gotten so much mail about different ballot measures, about different initiatives. And the same initiative can be described in so many

different ways that it actually takes quite a bit of work to sit down and be like, okay, you know, what are we doing? What do this actually do? How are you talking to voters and the people around you about these pieces of legislation where you can easily see how to someone who is kind of more apolitical or more centrist, they might seem like, you know, quote-unquote, common sense measures to protect our kids. How do you work against that? I think one of our weaknesses here in Washington is we have never adopted an anti-LGB initiative. And people who would be disinclined to vote on these are, they believe that we'll win. And so the activity has been kind of low level, as have contributions because people feel

like this is, these are so obviously should be defeated. But the fact of the matter is that, you know, what the, what the president is doing every single day in attacking trans youth and attacking trans people and attacking LGBTQ. people is in ways that are completely ubiquitous and unfair, seeps in, and it creates challenges for us to talk to voters. So we're doing a lot. We are right. I live in Tacoma. We are phone banking every week, multiple days a week. We are on the ground out talking to people. We are still in our fundraising and have produced good messaging ads, both digital and on TV, to be able to talk to voters directly.

And so trying to engage everywhere that we can engage, which costs all of these things cost money to do. But the thing that we have found is you're right. You were very brilliant about talking about all of the downsides. One of the things is you have to just mostly talk to people about a single downside about each one to get their attention. You know, obviously 638, the fact that every girl in this state is going to have to have an invasive medical exam. It's shocking and hard for people to believe that, which is one of our challenges. But I think that message is starting to come through to people and people are kind of picking up and listening and like, oh my, we can't have that.

So the question is, do we get enough uptake, you know, between now and election day and when the ballots come, out in order for people to know enough to realize they should have this skepticism and vote now on these. I do think we have a really great chance if we're able to reach people. It's a question of reaching people. So there's 8 million people in Washington State, Jane, about half of those people are registered to vote. I was hoping that your podcast might reach that half, that half. That's why I'm here, especially to be thinking about issues that impact not just LGBTQ kids, but all kids across the state of Washington. Speaker Jenkins, thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you so much for having me. I so appreciate it. That was my conversation with Washington State House Speaker, Lori Jenkins. Before we go, every Tuesday on Assembly Required, Stacey Abrams doesn't just diagnose problems. She talks about solutions and connects listeners to people doing boots on the ground work. This week, she's talking with social justice strategist Rashad Robinson to discuss how we can come together to confront authoritarianism, make it harder for bad actors to profit from harming others, and how we hold corporations accountable. Listen to Assembly Required now on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a review,

say goodbye to a televangelist and tell your friends to listen. And if you aren't reading, and not just about Jim Baker, who founded a massive TV-based ministry and then lost it all because he tried to buy off a woman who accused him of sexual assault and did a whole bunch of fraud and passed away yesterday. Like me, Whataday is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Jane Koston, and more recently, Baker was trying to sell buckets of long-lasting food for $600 so that believers could wait out the apocalypse because the salesman never stopped selling. What Today is a production of Crooked Media. Our show is produced by Emily 4, Erica Morrison, and Adrian Hill.

Our team includes Haley Jones, Greg Walters, Matt Berg, Adam Lippurg, Johanna Case, and Desmond Taylor. Our music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Cantor. We had helped today from the Associated Press. Our production staff is proudly unionized with the Writers Guild of America East.