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 for child sex trafficking.
Washington voters supported sex-based school sports categories but rejected a proposal giving parents the right to receive notification about medical services offered to their children at school and 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Missouri voters rejected Amendment 3, which would have repealed constitutional abortion protections and prohibited gender-transition services for minors. Missouri already has a ban on puberty blockers and hormones for minors through at least 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 2.8 million people ages 13 and older in the United States identify as transgender. About one-quarter, approximately 724,000, were ages 13–17, representing 3.3% of that age group. The institute’s 2022 analysis estimated that 300,000, or 1.4%, of people ages 13–17 identified as transgender. The estimates come from different reporting periods and should not be treated as a direct measurement of change without considering differences in data and methodology.
The 2025 analysis also estimated that about 2.1 million adults identify as transgender, representing 0.8% of the adult population. Based on those estimates, teenagers ages 13–17 are about four times as likely as adults to identify as transgender.
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.” There are currently 27 states that have bans on hormones and puberty blockers for children.
City Journal published an investigative report this week exposing a network of providers that are working around state-level bans on “gender-affirming” or “sex-rejecting” medicine. Providers in states without bans on the medication for minors work with pharmacies in the banned states or can mail the drugs directly to the patient’s house. The providers are often utilizing different diagnostic codes associated with “endocrine disorder” rather than using codes associated with 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 case was dismissed in federal district court and by the Tenth Circuit, 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 prohibits trans-identified children and teenagers from participating in sports leagues that are not aligned with their biological sex. Executive Director Nadine Bridges said they would conduct legal analysis to find ways to work around the new law. “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 said parents have a right to access the information, but they don’t have an affirmative right to know. It is unknown whether the Trump administration has responded or how it plans to proceed.