Bill > SB5097

This bill aims to safeguard competitiveness in girls' interscholastic athletic activities by providing a legal framework for the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) to adopt rules ensuring fair competition in girls' sports. The bill emphasizes the importance of girls' sports in public education, highlighting how athletics provide opportunities for personal growth, discipline, and teamwork. It requires the WIAA or other nonprofit entities overseeing interscholastic sports to create rules that ensure fair competition and safety, specifically allowing for consideration of physiological and hormonal variations among athletes. The legislation permits the development of rules that might exclude individual competitors from girls' athletic events if they would have an unfair advantage based on endocrine characteristics, while explicitly avoiding invasive sex verification processes. The bill mandates that any hormone-level sampling must be age-appropriate and used solely to determine competitive fairness or safety risks. Importantly, the bill does not require the elimination of distinct boys' and girls' teams but encourages their continued separate organization. Additionally, the bill stipulates that decisions made under these competitive rules do not constitute unlawful discrimination, providing legal protection for such determinations.

Education

https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5097&Year=2025&Initiative=false