Voters Back Sex-Based School Sports; Colorado Approves Ban on Transition Surgeries for Minors
Updated
Measures requiring school athletic teams to be designated by biological sex have passed or are leading in Colorado, Arizona, Nebraska, and Washington. Colorado’s Proposition 135 was narrowly leading in preliminary returns, though the outcome had not yet been called. The measure would ban surgeries on minors performed to alter biological sex characteristics in response to a minor’s perception of sex or gender. Colorado voters also approved Proposition 133, which would impose life imprisonment without parole for child sex trafficking.
Preliminary returns in Washington showed support for sex-based school sports categories and opposition to a proposal expanding parental notification about medical services offered to children at school and allowing parents to opt their children out of certain classes. Opponents argued the parental-notification measure could put LGBTQ+ students at risk by disclosing their identities to unsupportive or hostile parents and could discourage students from seeking help.
Missouri voters rejected Amendment 3, which would have repealed constitutional abortion protections and prohibited gender-transition procedures for minors. Missouri already restricts puberty blockers and hormones for gender transition in minors under a restriction scheduled to expire in August 2027.
An October poll found that the economy and cost of living were the most important issues for voters leading up to the election. Twelve percent of respondents said transgender issues were a top priority.
A 2025 Williams Institute analysis estimated that 724,000 U.S. teenagers ages 13–17, or 3.3% of that age group, identify as transgender. That is more than double the institute’s 2022 estimate of 300,000 teenagers, or 1.4%.
The 2025 analysis also estimated that 2.1 million adults, or 0.8% of the adult population, identify as transgender. Together, teenagers and adults account for approximately 2.8 million people ages 13 and older. Teenagers make up about one-quarter of that total, and their estimated rate of identifying as transgender is about four times the adult rate.
A New York Times and Ipsos poll from 2025 found 71% of Americans believe nobody under 18 should have access to puberty blockers or hormone treatments. Another 2025 poll found 56% of respondents favor or strongly favor policies that “make it illegal for health care professionals to provide minors with medical care for a gender transition.” Twenty-seven states have enacted laws banning or substantially restricting gender-transition medical care for minors.
As The HighWire recently reported, a City Journal investigation described a network of providers working around state-level bans on gender-transition medications for minors. According to the investigation, providers in states without bans work with pharmacies in states with bans or arrange for medications to be mailed directly to patients’ homes. Some providers reportedly use diagnostic codes associated with an “endocrine disorder” rather than gender dysphoria.
Erin Lee, known as “Erin 4 Parental Rights,” co-founded Protect Kids Colorado, which led the signature drive to get the three Colorado proposals on the ballot. Lee became a parental rights advocate after her 12-year-old daughter was invited to a Gender and Sexualities Alliance meeting that the family was told was an after-school art club in 2021. Lee said her daughter was encouraged to explore gender identity and keep discussions from her parents. Lee’s child identified as transgender for a period after this experience, and Lee withdrew her from the district.
Lee and her husband, along with another family, sued the school district in 2023. They alleged that district policies and staff actions violated parents’ Fourteenth Amendment right to direct the upbringing of their children. The federal district court dismissed the case, the Tenth Circuit upheld the dismissal, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear it.
“I am for parental rights. I am NOT for a parent’s right to irreversibly harm their child’s healthy body,” Lee wrote in an X post the day before the election. “Protecting children from irreversible sex-change surgeries isn’t a violation of parental rights. It’s protecting children. Period.”
LGBTQ advocacy group One Colorado opposed Proposition 134, which would restrict participation on school and college athletic teams based on biological sex. Executive Director Nadine Bridges said the organization would assess its legal options if the measure passes. “We’re going to exhaust all possibilities to ensure that our young people can be involved in what they want to be.”
The HighWire revealed details from a California open records request that show the state’s department of education is refusing to answer federal questions about how it is handling parental access to information, including gender transition plans that were allegedly held secret from unsuspecting parents in the state. The department’s attorney acknowledged parents’ right to access educational records but did not address an affirmative right to notification. It is unknown whether the Trump administration has responded or how it plans to proceed.