In the fight for trans rights and against a pair of draconian ballot initiatives in Washington State, a grassroots campaign is confronting not only the toxic effects of the Trump administration’s crusade against trans people, but the deep pockets of the MAGA billionaire who’s sponsoring them.

Brian Heywood, a hedge fund manager and close ally of President Donald Trump, is the “villain we’re up against,” Libby Watson, campaign manager for No Hate in WA State, tells LGBTQ Nation. That organization is the collection of non-profits, parents, medical professionals, students and teachers arrayed against Heywood’s self-funded right-wing political action committee, Let’s Go Washington.

---

---

The group is behind two initiatives that Watson and No Hate are organizing against.

Initiative 638 would ban trans girls from school sports with a requirement for genital exams or other forms of testing to confirm the sex of every girl in the state who wants to play sports. Initiative 001 outs LGBTQ+ students to families, repeals records protections from the victims of child abuse, and opens confidential school meetings between students and counselors for inspection.  

We are supposed to be this progressive state, and a state where a lot of trans refugees come to feel safe and get care and find community. And if we can’t maintain that, I think it will only embolden the movement against us.Libby Watson

Together, they’re a one-two punch attacking what MAGA supporters of the anti-LGBTQ+ Let’s Go campaign characterize as “gender ideology” and the “transgender agenda.”

“We definitely are up against a lot of misinformation coming from Let’s Go Washington, and then obviously the dangerous national rhetoric and using trans kids as a scapegoat, particularly when it comes to sports,” Watson says.

The last may be cover for Heywood’s prime objective, she says.

“We think that his dog in this fight is about taxation.”

Discriminating against trans kids for a tax cut

After qualifying the two culture war initiatives for the ballot, Heywood ran a separate signature-gathering campaign to qualify Initiative 645, which would repeal the millionaires’ tax recently passed by the Washington legislature that established a 9.9% tax on income over $1 million per year.

Let’s Go Washington is packaging all three together in their Yes campaign.

“Ultimately, what he really cares about is not being taxed, and so he’s using students, the trans kids, LGBTQ+ youth as a scapegoat to rile up his base with the hope that he can turn out enough conservatives and persuade enough voters to vote yes on all three initiatives,” Watson says. “It’s not about fairness in girls’ sports.”

The No Hate campaign holds some advantages, including a losing track record of earlier illiberal initiatives sponsored by Heywood and Let’s Go Washington. Three out of four of them went down to defeat, while the fourth was ruled unconstitutional in the courts.

Appealing to the same progressive voters responsible for those losses is a priority for Watson.

“We know from our polling and historical knowledge that we don’t have an easy pathway, especially on the trans sports ban with Republicans and people who identify as conservative voters. So that is definitely less of our focus, particularly when it comes to knocking doors, phone banking, paid media,” Watson says.

“But we are a very blue state with a majority of Democratic voters, so we’re targeting those progressive voters who are likely to turn out in a midterm election. Our pathway to winning is by really turning out everyone in the metropolitan areas that are dense and have a lot of progressive folks.”

“And the messages we know that work are to make sure people understand who we’re up against and how these came to be on the ballot,” she says.

That means hammering the fact that Let’s Go Washington is a creature of Heywood’s making.

“He’s spent millions of his own money just in the last 12 months to pay for signature gathering to get these to qualify in the first place, and he’s using the national rhetoric, the culture war wedge issues that conservatives are using all over the country, because he sees them as an effective way to divide and conquer us and distract us from the real issues we’re facing.”

Part of that distraction will be a deluge of negative advertising as Election Day draws closer.

Out-fundraised but not outmatched

“We know based on his past behavior that they’ll definitely put a good amount into ads,” Watson says.

Paradoxically, raising money to counter that effort is tough in a blue state. Three other anti-trans ballot initiatives in red states illustrate the problem: all of them are pulling in more money than No Hate in WA State.

In Arizona, a Republican-sponsored initiative would allow students to sue school districts over “biological males” in women’s sports-related spaces, and ban trans girls from all private sports leagues in the state, adding to an existing school sports ban.

In Colorado, religious groups are behind an initiative that would designate sports teams from kindergarten through college as strictly male or female based on students’ “biological reproductive systems.”

And in Missouri, voters will decide on a constitutional amendment that combines a rollback of abortion rights with permanent restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors.

“We are out-fundraised about five to one in Washington compared to the other states facing similar initiatives, while we also are the most likely to beat these things,” Watson says. “It’s been hard to get national donors and potential investors to understand that even though we are a Democratic state, there’s still a very real risk that these could pass.”

What’s next if these pass? Is it then taking away our right to marry?Libby Watson

No Hate’s grassroots model is built to overcome that fundraising disadvantage.

“This time around, Heywood is using these culture war issues that affect the queer community and young people in public schools, so it’s a slightly different messaging strategy,” Watson said of Heywood’s earlier, losing initiatives to repeal climate, capital gains tax, and long-term care laws.

But while scapegoating trans kids might bring the MAGA base to the polls, there’s an equal likelihood progressives will rally to oppose it.

“It’s a much more energized movement this year that brings in different stakeholders and community members, in a way that I think is really powerful and movement-building,” Watson says.

“We have 500-plus endorsers. We also have 5,000-plus volunteer signups. And there are so many people showing up and knocking doors or phone banking who have never done it before. So many people donating when they never donated to a political campaign before. People understand the threat it is to all of us.”

What this election means to the national LGBTQ+ community

The vote on November 3 is a test for her state, Watson says.

“What I really think about as a queer adult is that if these initiatives pass in Washington, the signal that sends to conservatives and the anti-trans movement nationwide is really terrifying, because we are supposed to be this progressive state, and a state where a lot of trans refugees come to feel safe and get care and find community. And if we can’t maintain that, I think it will only embolden the movement against us.”

“What’s next if these pass?” Watson asks. “Is it then taking away our right to marry? What’s next for bodily autonomy and reproductive healthcare access? I think it’s a very slippery slope if we ignore these and don’t fight our absolute hardest to beat them.”