Claims That Sports-Sex Ballot Measures Require Genital Exams Are Fabricated Lies Meant to Distract Voters
Source: Chris Bray. "Media Are Still Lying About Child Protection Measures." November 2, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author says critics and the media claim that new ballot measures on girls' sports would force kids to undergo genital exams, but the measures' text doesn't say that, and Nebraska's similar law hasn't led to such exams. He concludes the claim is a deliberate lie meant to avoid debating what the measures actually do.
Conclusion
Media outlets and opponents of the youth sports sex-verification ballot measures are lying when they claim the measures require genital exams, and voters should disregard this claim and focus on what the measures actually do.
Premises
- The text of Washington's Initiative 638 contains no language requiring genital exams, and anyone can read it on the Secretary of State's website.
- The Washington Post supported its claim only by reporting what opponents say the measure would require, not what the measure says.
- The measure's sponsor states that the initiative does not require, mandate, or authorize genital exams, and that a doctor simply checks a box on an existing sports physical form using medical history or any method the doctor and patient choose.
- Nebraska's LB 89, which requires health care provider verification of sex for girls' sports, has been in effect for over a year, and there is no evidence that children have been forced to expose their genitals to strangers.
- Opponents use the false genital-exam claim to avoid debating the measures' actual content, on a topic where public opinion allegedly favors the measures by about 80/20.
Assumptions
- Reporting an opponents' claim without checking the measure's text is equivalent to deliberately lying.
- A measure's literal text, and the sponsor's description of it, accurately predicts how it will be implemented in practice.
- The absence of reported genital exams in Nebraska means none occurred and that Nebraska's law is comparable to Washington's and Colorado's measures.
- Opponents are knowingly spreading falsehoods rather than sincerely fearing a possible implementation.
- Public opinion strongly favors the measures (the '80/20' claim), giving opponents a motive to change the subject.
- 'Any other method the doctor deems best' does not open the door to invasive exams.