Marie Perez

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John Braun is championing Initiative 638 in a race against Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez that could help determine control of the House.

Washington Sen. John Braun looks out onto the factory floor at Braun Northwest’s Chehalis, WA, facility.

A Washington state lawmaker running for Congress is campaigning for a ballot measure that would ban transgender girls from girls’ school sports.

State Sen. John Braun, the Republican nominee in Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, has spent the final weeks of his campaign promoting Initiative 638, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. The measure would require students participating in girls’ school sports to submit verification of their sex from a healthcare provider as part of their sports physicals. It would bar transgender girls from those competitions.

The focus on the culture war issue comes as Braun runs in a closely watched race to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez. The contest could help determine which party controls the U.S. House.

Related: Washington Governor Signs Bill Protecting Transgender Kids from Estranged Parents

“It’s a common sense issue, it’s a fairness issue, it’s a safety issue,” Braun told Fox News this month.

Braun intensified his push for the measure after a group of high school athletes in Camas, Washington, declined to participate in a cross-country race to protest the inclusion of a trans teammate, as reported by OPB. The athlete, who previously competed in boys’ events, placed second in a girls’ junior varsity 5,000-meter race in September. Her participation subsequently attracted attention from anti-trans influencers online.

A poll released by Let’s Go Washington, which supports the ban, found 56 percent support for the initiative.

Braun’s embrace of the initiative adds an anti-trans campaign message to his effort to flip a seat Gluesenkamp Perez won in 2022.

Gluesenkamp Perez has also supported legislation that LGBTQ+ advocates oppose. She was among eight Democrats to support a bill in the U.S. House that could require schools to out transgender students to their parents.

But she opposes the Washington initiative as written, even as she expresses opposition to transgender girls’ participation in girls’ sports.

“I don’t think it’s fair to have people who are born boys compete in girls' sports,” Gluesenkamp Perez told NBC affiliate KGW. “I think this ballot initiative is going to open up more vulnerability, more problems than it is going to solve. I’m not saying there isn’t a problem to solve, but I disagree with the solution.”

Casa Kuà says Berlin police officers searched attendees’ belongings, broke into lockers, and held people for up to four hours during a weekly transfeminine gathering.

More than 100 pediatricians and nurses have joined the campaign against Initiative 638, which they say would create harmful barriers for young athletes.

A West Texas district attorney is also seeking answers as to who is impersonating the Transgender Education Network of Texas.

Nationwide, choruses centering transgender and nonbinary people are bringing much-needed joy and solidarity to their community and beyond.

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Chatham Middle School, located in Morris County, New Jersey.

Two flyers that were distributed to residents in several Texas cities display the branding of the Transgender Education Network, a Texas LGBTQ+ advocacy group.

Children's Hospital of Richmond in the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center.

Christina Bohannan is a Democrat running to represent Iowa in the U.S. House of Representatives.

A banner hangs in the stadium that says "Trans People Belong In Sports" before the start of a National Women's Soccer League match at Sports Illustrated Stadium on May 4, 2025, in Harrison, New Jersey.

One participant says he was 17 during an alleged encounter.

“There’s no reason to have singled us out and discriminated against us,” executive director Mary Adam tellsThem.

Tremon Hill has been charged with murder over the fatal 2018 shooting.

Rallygoers laughed as Trump used the slur against the cisgender pediatrician, who has publicly opposed transgender inclusion in women’s sports.

“I don’t need the idea planted into their head a million times,” one user wrote on a conservative subreddit.

Anthem Orlando is just the latest LGBTQ+ nightclub to report having its account unexpectedly taken down.