August 18th, 2026 Episode Summary

This episode of The Forecast, a Seattle-based women’s sports show, examines Washington State’s Initiative 638, a November ballot measure that would prohibit students defined as “biologically male” from competing in school athletic activities intended for female students and require healthcare-provider verification of biological sex based on anatomy, genetics, or testosterone levels for girls to participate in school sports. Maggie Mertens outlines Washington’s initiative process and profiles Brian Heywood, the conservative PAC founder behind the measure, noting his extensive funding of multiple right-leaning initiatives and the financial imbalance between the well-funded “yes” campaign and the opposition led by education unions and the ACLU. The episode situates I-638 against Washington’s long-standing inclusive policy for trans student-athletes, in place since 2007, and the reality that only about ten of roughly 75,000 girls playing school sports in the state are transgender.

Through interviews with parents, educators, coaches, and a former professional athlete, the show explores how mandatory sex verification could deter broad participation in girls’ sports, not just affect the small number of trans athletes. Olympia teacher and parent Kyrian MacMichael describes her daughter, a multi-sport high school wrestler pursuing college opportunities, vowing to quit sports rather than undergo invasive genital checks, and reports widespread fear among girls—especially those who do not conform to traditional femininity—of being targeted under the initiative.

Trans non-binary runner and parent Revelry Buchanan argues the measure functions both as an anti-girls and anti-trans initiative, warning that added testing requirements will deter girls from school sports and push families toward more expensive private or club athletics, deepening economic disparities.

Queer coach and educator John Gallagher highlights how co-ed track and cross-country environments can offer inclusive spaces for youth exploring queer and trans identities, and recounts supporting non-binary and trans students through case-by-case decisions on teams, names, and pronouns, emphasizing that these athletes seek belonging and safety rather than competitive advantage.

Former professional basketball player and University of Washington professor Dr. Kate Starbird connects the initiative to broader disinformation and political strategies that weaponize trans girls in sports as a wedge issue, arguing that blanket exclusion of trans kids and mandatory sex verification for all girls would introduce trauma, increase barriers to participation, and intensify policing of gender presentation. She warns that framing girls as needing protection from “biological males” risks undermining co-ed play, reinforcing rigid sex segregation, and feeding campaigns that seek to roll back Title IX and other structural supports for women’s sports, even as girls’ programs already face funding and access inequities.

Across these perspectives, the episode argues that Initiative 638’s sex-verification regime and exclusionary framing would primarily harm girls’ access to school sports, exacerbate economic and social disparities, and further marginalize trans youth, while doing little to address the real, documented challenges facing girls’ and women’s athletics in Washington State

Episode Notes

0:00 - Context on I-638

8:00 - Interview with Kyrian MacMichael

18:59 - Interview with Revelry Buchanan

28:43 - Interview with John Gallagher

41:00 - Interview with Dr. Kate Starbird

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Kyrian MacMichael is a public educator in Olympia and has a daughter who is a high school wrestler.

Revelry Buchanan is a transformation and technology executive with 15+ years of experience helping organizations align leadership, culture, and technology to deliver measurable outcomes. They have held senior roles as an Advisory Director at both Grant Thornton and Avanade (an Accenture company), leading large-scale digital and organizational transformations across healthcare, financial services, technology, and mission-driven sectors. Outside of work, they live in the mountains outside Seattle with their teenage daughters and enjoy trail running and cooking.

John Gallagher is originally from Mercer Island and is now back in the Seattle area after attending Grinnell College to run track. Gallagher is a coach, a teacher, and currently pursuing a school counseling graduate degree.

Kate Starbird is a Professor at the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) at the University of Washington (UW). Kate’s research sits within the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). Extending from early work in crisis informatics, her research program has followed the phenomenon of online rumoring down the rabbit hole and into some of the toxic online spaces that are increasingly (re)shaping discourse, values, and politics around the world. Kate is also a former WNBA basketball player who played 9 seasons of professional basketball after a standout career at Stanford where she was named the Naismith College Player of the Year in 1997.

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The Forecast is a Production of :

KVRU (https://www.kvru.org/shows/the-forecast/) & JEFFSCOTTSHAW

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Executive Producer + Host // Maggie Mertens // [email protected]

Executive Producer // JEFFSCOTTSHAW // [email protected]

Additional Production Support Provided By // Crystal Fincher & Shannon Cheng & Maurice Jones Jr.