During Tuesday’s live televised debate between Third Congressional District candidates Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and John Braun, the issue of biological males participating in girls’ and women’s sports was addressed.
The issue is currently before Washington voters in the Nov. 3 general election in the form of Initiative 638. A spotlight on the issue has also been focused on Clark County due to the presence of a biological male competing for the Camas High School girls’ cross country team after beginning the season on the boys’ team.
On Tuesday afternoon, a dozen Camas athletes and five runners from Battle Ground High School declined to race against the biological male, instead walking off the course immediately following the start of the race. The biological male finished second in the girls’ race.
Here is the exchange between the candidates to questions posed by KATU-TV reporter Wright Gazaway:
Reporter Wright Gazaway, KATU: Senator Braun, do you support banning transgender girls and women from participating in girls and women's sports? If so, how should a policy account for age, competitive level, and privacy?
Braun: Yes. I think it takes decidedly on the wrong track to allow biological males to compete in girls or women’s sports. I raised three daughters who were actively involved in athletics in high school and in college. This is an important part of their lives.
This is about fairness and safety, about biology. We have Title IX for a reason. For decades we fought for a fair playing field for women. Now, for reasons I can’t fully explain in 2026, we want to undo all of that. I think it’s wrongheaded. I think it’s unfair. I think it’s unsafe. And I think it’s the wrong path for our state and our country.
Gluesenkamp Perez: I’m libertarian on this issue. I think that these decisions are best made by local stakeholders.
Fundamentally, I agree it’s not fair for boys to compete in girls sports. But let’s be real about what this would look like, though, in practice. People change their birth certificates in Washington state. It’s not fair to make girls certify their sex to the state just to play softball. With the change in birth certificates, I think it's a very slippery slope to genital exams, to state DNA banks, solutions that I don’t think makes students safer.
Wright Gazaway, KATU: Do you believe there is a problem that needs to be solved and what is the message to transgender students affected by any changes?
Gluesenkamp Perez: This is very, very rare. This is not a common issue. What we do hear about, although it’s painful for survivors to talk about, is sex abuse. Think about Larry Nadler or these other gymnastics people who have abused student athletes. We need to be cognizant of that as we pursue a solution to fairness in sports.
Wright Gazaway, KATU: Senator Braun, what problem does it solve, and what is the message to transgender students affected by it?
Braun: This is about fairness. This is about safety. It’s simply a biological fact that biological males are different from biological females, and we should have a level playing field. … We need to be thoughtful about transgender students, but this doesn’t prevent them from playing sports. It just means they have to play sports by their biological sex. The idea that it can’t be done is just wrong.
And it’s a big deal. Just in the last week and a half … two young women in Camas stepped away from a cross country meet because they had a biological male, who, by the way, competed as a biological male for three out of four years in high school, then shifted to compete on the girls team. They felt that was unfair, and they took a stand. So yes, it is a big local issue.
And yeah, it doesn’t happen every day, but it’s happening enough that we need to pay attention. We need to address the issue of fairness and safety in girls sports.
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