Through the Static

By Hannah Saunders

UPDATE: Let’s Go Washington delivered signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office on January 2. These two citizen initiatives will now be introduced to the 2026 Washington State Legislative Session.

A conservative political group backed by California millionaire Brian Heywood has garnered enough signatures from community members to introduce anti-Trans and anti-Queer initiatives to Washington’s 2026 legislative session. Let’s Go Washington is preparing to turn in signatures on January 2 for two measures: one that would prevent Trans girls from competing in girls sports, and one that would restore the Parents Bill of Rights. 

Restoring the Parents Bill of Rights, or IL26-001 would in part, allow parents to oversee their child’s educational activities as they relate to sexual orientation and gender identity. IL26-638, or the Protecting Girls’ Sports measure, would force students to show documentation of their assigned sex at birth, and would require invasive exams of “reproductive organs” on all female students as young as 11 years, and boys are exempt. 

But with the deadline approaching, Let’s Go Washington has already broke through the finish line. IL26-001 has received about 383,191 signatures, while IL26-638 has approximately 414,719, according to evangelist Corey A. DeAngelis, who is a senior fellow at the American Culture Project, which works to “attract, educate, and mobilize independent voters around the ideas of freedom and opportunity,” its website states. Each initiative needed 308,911 signatures for the initiatives to be introduced to the legislature. 

Washington Families for Freedom has been encouraging state residents to vote no, and said that these “poorly written initiatives…will threaten the safety of every Washington student, putting some students at greater risk of abuse at home and at school through possible invasive genital exams, forced outing, and restricted access to help when they need it most.” 

Let’s Go Washington is hosting a party at the office of the Secretary of State on January 2 at 3:30 p.m. to turn in all signatures.

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