Alliance Defending Freedom has asked to join a lawsuit defending Washington’s voter-approved girls’ sports initiative, arguing that the state may not fully represent the interests of female athletes. The group filed the motion on behalf of Female Athletes United.
The Nov. 13 filing asks King County Superior Court to let the organization participate as a defendant in the challenge to Initiative 638. The request is pending; the court has not granted it.
ADF attorney Hal Frampton said the group wants to help defend the measure so it can take effect Dec. 3, as Washington voters approved.
Initiative 638 would bar students who are biologically male from competing in school sports designated for girls. It would also require athletes in girls’ competitions to have their biological sex verified by a personal health care provider as part of the sports physical process.
The lawsuit was brought by parents, TransFamilies and the Washington Education Association. They argue the initiative violates state constitutional protections, including privacy and equal rights, by excluding transgender girls and requiring sex verification for girls’ sports but not boys’ sports.
Asked whether he trusted Washington Attorney General Nick Brown to defend the initiative, Frampton said Female Athletes United wanted the athletes’ perspective included in the case. The group, he said, trusted female athletes to help defend the law on the state’s behalf.
The motion says Washington’s past defense of transgender participation in girls’ sports could limit the arguments the state is willing to make. Female Athletes United intends to argue that the initiative is valid and that federal law, Title IX regulations and existing state laws require girls’ teams to be reserved for female athletes. Those are the organization’s legal arguments, which it is asking the court to consider.
Brown announced Nov. 12 that he had hired the outside law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner to defend the initiative for the state. He said the arrangement would allow the measure to be defended while his office continued its work on transgender rights. Brown also said his personal views would not determine which laws his office defended or how vigorously it did so.
Frampton said ADF was willing to work with anyone defending the measure. He said he was not aware of the organization contacting the attorney general’s office. ADF, he added, planned to make a vigorous defense and use the arguments available to it to protect what it described as fairness and safety in women’s sports.
The motion includes accounts from athletes who describe competing against transgender athletes. Some say they may leave their school teams if the initiative is blocked.
It cites declarations from five Female Athletes United members: Soleil Hoefer, Charlie Garrett, Sierra Retzlaff, Elise Bierer and Ahnaleigh Wilson.
In a separate declaration, the group’s board chair, Kristine L. Brown, describes Female Athletes United as a coalition of prospective, current and former female athletes, coaches, relatives and other supporters. She says the group works on legal advocacy and on protecting athletes’ privacy in locker rooms and other private spaces.
Brown says the organization does not campaign in elections, though individual members supported or voted for Initiative 638. She also identifies Washington athletes whose opportunities to play school sports the group hopes to protect.
Hoefer, who joined Frampton in an interview, said her experience running track in high school helped spur her advocacy. She said she had to race against a boy at the state meet, and that her teammates had competed against the same athlete the year before.
Hoefer’s declaration says she graduated from Prosser High School in 2025 and now attends Walla Walla Community College on a soccer scholarship. She also cited her younger sister, who plays high school volleyball and basketball, as a reason she supports the measure.
Hoefer said the vote showed that people could support the initiative without treating it as a partisan choice, and that she saw it as a vote for women’s safety and protection in sports.
Garrett, a runner at Skyview High School, says in her declaration that she and teammate Retzlaff left the starting line during a September meet that included a transgender runner from Camas High School. Garrett says she later competed against the Camas athlete at postseason events. She finished third at districts, behind the athlete in second place, and eighth at regionals, behind the athlete in seventh.
Garrett described her advocacy as isolating and difficult, but said she believed it was worthwhile to protect girls from unfair competition and preserve their safe spaces and opportunities. She said she might run for a club team this spring rather than compete for her school if a court blocks the initiative.
Retzlaff said in a declaration dated Nov. 13 that she, too, might choose club running over school competition next year if Initiative 638 does not take effect. She described the possibility of the court blocking the measure as heartbreaking, saying her effort to support it had been among the hardest things she had done.
Bierer, a runner at Battle Ground High School, says she walked away from the starting line alone at a district meet rather than race against the Camas athlete. Her declaration says she left as the varsity race began, in tears, and was the only runner to do so. She says she will not return to the cross-country team next year if she is required to compete against biologically male athletes.
Wilson, who runs for Eastmont High School, says she supported the initiative through public advocacy and gathering signatures around Washington. She described a court blocking the measure as devastating and said it would make her two and a half years of advocacy, and the toll it had taken on her, feel wasted.
Several athletes also addressed the sex-verification requirement challenged in the lawsuit. Hoefer, Garrett, Retzlaff and Wilson say they would be comfortable having their doctors verify their sex for sports eligibility.
Frampton said some Female Athletes United members expect to compete next season and are counting on Initiative 638 to ensure fairness and safety in women’s sports.
