​4 states move anti-trans ballot measures to voters for 2026 midterm election

A new phase in the fight over transgender rights is unfolding, not in legislatures, but at the ballot box.

In at least four states, voters are poised to decide measures targeting transgender people in 2026, as a coordinated wave of Republican proposals advances through citizen initiatives and legislative referrals. Some have already qualified for the ballot, while others are moving through final procedural steps after lawmakers declined to act.

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Advocates say the shift reflects a strategic pivot after years of legislative battles that stalled or failed.

“This harkens back to 2004 and the playbook around marriage equality,” Alana Jochum, state policy director at Advocates for Trans Equality, told The Advocate. “Our opposition [is] turning to an old playbook to try to scapegoat a small percentage of the population.”

After years of introducing hundreds of anti-trans bills in state legislatures, many of which failed, groups backing these measures are increasingly turning to ballot initiatives to bypass lawmakers and appeal directly to voters.

“This is a bad-faith attempt to politicize a small segment of the population,” Jochum said.

More measures could still qualify in the months ahead, potentially expanding the electoral map even further.

“All of these are anti-democratic attacks,” Jochum said.

Missouri

Missouri is the furthest along and the most politically complex. Amendment 3 is already certified for the November 2026 ballot and would ban gender-affirming care for minors, including puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and surgeries, while also rolling back abortion rights approved by voters in 2024.

Advocates say the pairing is designed to reshape voter coalitions. One ballot measure “has already made it to the ballot in Missouri… to not only overturn that reproductive freedom [measure], but to go after gender-affirming care for young people,” Chris Melody Fields Figueredo of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, told The Advocate.

The structure of the measure appears deliberate. Missouri Independent found that including a ban on gender-affirming care increases support for the broader effort to restrict abortion, showing how transgender issues are being folded into wider political campaigns.

A separate, citizen-led proposal in Missouri would move in the opposite direction, adding gender identity to statewide nondiscrimination protections in housing, employment, and public accommodations.

Colorado

Colorado is emerging as the most expansive battleground. Two anti-trans measures have qualified for the ballot, according to reporting from Colorado Public Radio and The Colorado Sun.

One would bar transgender students from participating in sports aligned with their gender identity across K-12 and college athletics. The second would restrict gender-affirming care for minors, including limiting the use of public funds or insurance coverage.

“We have repeatedly been able to defeat those measures,” Jochum said. “It’s often those states [where]… these anti-trans measures [are] trying to bypass the legislative process.

Maine

In Maine, a citizen initiative targeting transgender students has qualified for the ballot after organizers gathered enough signatures, according to Maine Public.

The proposal would require school sports participation and access to certain facilities to be based on sex assigned at birth, reversing current inclusive policies. Under state law, the measure will first go to the legislature, which can choose to enact it or send it to voters. If lawmakers don’t step in, it will make it to the ballot.

The initiative sets up a direct test in a state where gender identity is already protected under civil rights law

Washington

In Washington, a proposal focused on school athletics is advancing after lawmakers declined to adopt it. The initiative would require verification from a health care provider that a student was assigned female at birth and would rely on evidence based on genetics, anatomy, or testosterone levels before participating in girls’ sports.

Because the legislature adjourned without passing the measure, it is expected to move forward to the ballot, placing another Democratic-leaning state at the center of the national fight.