The success of the anti-trans ballot initiatives marked a rare win for conservatives during a historic blue-wave midterm.

Voters in four states this week approved or strengthened limits on transgender athletes’ participation in girls’ sports, a rare win for conservatives during a historic blue-wave midterm.

More than two dozen Republican-led states have already adopted bans on transgender girls and women participating on female teams. Now two blue states, Colorado and Washington, are joining their ranks, and Arizona and Nebraska have strengthened their bans.

Colorado voters also narrowly approved a ban on gender-affirming surgeries for minors, a vote that was so close the Associated Press called the outcome only Friday.

Though in a fifth state, Missouri, a prohibition on gender transition surgeries tied to a ballot measure revoking abortion rights failed.

Conservatives had pushed for voter initiatives in those states after their legislatures had failed or not tried to adopt such policies. Now, proponents of the bans could turn to other states that lack such restrictions.

Erin Lee, the founder of Protect Kids Colorado, said in an interview that the ballot wins were victories for “common sense.”“We’ve proven that these issues transcend party lines. Protecting children and safeguarding single-sex spaces isn’t Republican or Democrat — it’s common sense,” Lee said.

In both Colorado and Washington — with Democratic governors and majorities in the state legislature — LGBTQ+ advocates criticized Lee’s group and others for trying to do an end run around Democratic legislatures.

“It’s unfortunate this is the route we had to take,” Lee said. “I would have loved that the legislature had listened to the voting public on these issues. They’re not political, but they have been politicized.

Abigail Saguy, a sociologist at the University of California at Los Angeles and author of the book “Gender Flashpoints: The Power of Dialogue,” said the fact that Democrats and Republicans alike passed these measures during a midterm year that resulted in a historic blue wave “shows clearly how wrong the narrative has been on the left as well as on the right and how polarized a lot of the news reporting has been on these issues.”Polls show that a majority of Americans oppose transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports, a number that has risen in recent years, according to Gallup surveys.

Support for trans athletes playing on teams that match their gender identity dropped by around 10 percentage points between 2021 and 2025 among Democrats and independents, a Gallup poll showed last year.

“Voters overwhelmingly think it’s wrong for a transgender person to be fired or discriminated at work because they’re trans, but a large portion of those people also think eligibility for sports should be based on biology,” Saguy said. “Those two things can be true at the same time.”

Families Not Politics, the group that opposed the measures, said in a statement Thursday that the political campaign had turned transgender children into “statewide controversies.”“Colorado’s kids will have to live with the consequences of this election — they will face new barriers to medically necessary healthcare and new, expensive barriers and exclusion from full participation in school,” the statement said.

Washington’s ban, heavily funded by a conservative private-equity mogul from the Seattle suburbs, will require verification from a health care provider of a student-athlete’s “biological sex, based on reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels.”The two sides each spent millions, sparring bitterly about what the initiative’s wording entailed. Opponents of the measure — including the Washington Academy of Family Physicians and the state nursing association — alleged it would require an intrusive genital exam, while proponents claimed the check would be routine.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association said in a statement this week that it would be “making all necessary changes” by Dec. 3, when the new law goes into effect, with implementation details, including updates to physical exam requirements, “under review.”In Arizona and Nebraska, voters shored up or expanded restrictions already put in place.

Arizona voters approved expanding limits on transgender participation in girls’ sports to all schools and athletic associations, as well as restricting access to locker rooms to the sex listed on a person’s birth certificate.

Nebraska voters approved language for the state’s constitution that would shore up an existing transgender sports ban and make it harder for future legislatures to overturn.

Lee said public attitudes toward transgender competition in women’s sports has changed in recent years. She cited prominent athletes who have spoken out against transgender inclusion, including Sophie Cunningham, the WNBA player, who said this summer that women should not have to compete against “biological men.”

“So much has changed in the last five years,” Lee said. “The conversation has shifted. People are less kowtowed into staying silent. It’s okay to speak biological truth.”