Washington officials won't budge on trans athlete policy after girl files SCOTUS appeal for alleged assault
Washington’s high school athletics association and the state superintendent say they will keep letting students compete by gender identity while a Supreme Court application over girls’ wrestling is pending.
The Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) responded after K.M.K. and her mother, Stephanie Lynne Brown, asked Justice Elena Kagan for an injunction pending appeal. The plaintiff is Kallie Keeler, the Puyallup-area wrestler who alleges she was sexually assaulted by a male opponent during a girls’ match in December and was not told he was male beforehand.
OSPI, which does not run athletics but enforces state law on extracurricular activities, stood by current state policy.
"While OSPI does not oversee athletics in our state, our office is responsible for communicating, upholding, and enforcing the law, including in student athletics and extracurricular activities," the superintendent’s office told OutKick. "OSPI will continue to uphold Washington’s current law unless or until the law changes. OSPI does not have any non-privileged statement, board notice, or guidance that we have issued to schools or staff regarding this appeal."
After President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February 2025 aimed at keeping male athletes out of girls’ and women’s sports, Washington Superintendent Chris Reykdal rejected it outright. In a Feb. 6 statement, he said the order tried to force schools to "discriminate against trans female athletes" in exchange for federal funds, and that it sought to "restrict transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports with their peers."
He called the order unlawful, said it contradicted the Washington Law Against Discrimination and state school rules, and added: "Our state law prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and we will not back down from that."
Days later, Reykdal went further on the categories themselves.
"It is quite simply inaccurate to say, biologically, that there are only boys and there are only girls," he said. "There’s a continuum. There’s a science to this. There are children who are born intersex. There are children whose hormones and whose chromosomes are not consistent with their sex at birth."
He told districts that students "get to identify and participate based on the gender in which they identify," and that his office would uphold that law.
He also framed the issue as a small accommodation. Of nearly a quarter million students in Washington interscholastic activities, he said, "roughly five to 10 youth have identified themselves as trans."
"If we can’t accommodate the needs of five or 10 people," he asked, "who are we?" Reykdal argued an executive order is not law and does not override state policy. OSPI told districts to stay in compliance with the gender-identity rules and said it was preparing guidance in response to what it called an unlawful order.
The WIAA also defended current state policy on Monday after Keeler's SCOTUS appeal.
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"The WIAA remains committed to following Washington State law which permits student-athletes to participate in sports consistent with the gender with which they identify," the association said. "If state law changes in the future, the WIAA holds the authority to revise policies as necessary to remain in compliance with state law. The WIAA will not comment further on a matter in litigation."
Neither answer addressed the relief Keeler’s lawyers are seeking: that she be allowed to wrestle this season without being matched against a male, or that her mother receive notice so she can opt out without penalty. Wrestling in Washington opens in mid-November.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed the emergency application after a Tacoma federal judge denied a preliminary injunction on Aug. 23 and the Ninth Circuit refused an injunction pending appeal on Sept. 25. The filing argues that WIAA’s gender-identity rule violates Title IX and Brown’s parental rights. It cites the Supreme Court’s June 30 decision in West Virginia v. B.P.J., which held that states may limit girls’ teams to biological females.
Keeler has wrestled since she was 4. She left the team in January after the Lady Jag Kickoff and has said she is unsure she will return if she can be paired against a male again without warning. The district previously told her mother that forfeiture was the available remedy and that it would not give advance notice.
The Puyallup School District did not respond to a request for comment.