Effort to overturn transgender bathroom rule falls short

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The secretary of state's office says backers of a proposed initiative that sought to repeal a state rule allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify will not be turning in signatures.


The group supporting the proposed Initiative 1515 cancelled an appointment to turn in signatures gathered, the secretary of state's office said late Thursday. Groups trying to qualify a measure for the November ballot have until Friday to get their signatures in.

An initiative requires at least 246,372 valid signatures of registered state voters to be certified, though the secretary of state's office suggests at least 325,000 in case of any duplicate or invalid signatures.

Seth Kirby, the chair of a group that opposed the effort to overturn the transgender bathroom rule, said in a statement late Thursday that "Washingtonians have sent a clear message - we won't discriminate."