Judge Upholds Minnesota Rule Letting Males Compete in Girls’ Sports

A federal judge has declined to block a Minnesota policy that allows male students who identify as female to participate in high school girls’ sports teams.

A female athlete advocacy group had challenged the rule, saying it violated the rights of women and girls under federal anti-discrimination law.

In a Sept. 19 opinion, District Judge Eric C. Tostrud of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota denied a request by Female Athletes United (FAU) for a preliminary injunction against the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) and state officials.

While the judge held that FAU has standing to sue, he found that the group had not shown that it is likely to succeed on the merits of its claim that allowing “transgender females” to play in girls’ sports violates Title IX, the federal statute that bars sex-based discrimination in education.

The ruling keeps in place a decade-old MSHSL bylaw that lets students compete in athletics and fine arts according to their gender identity rather than biological sex.

FAU, represented by attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom, argued that the policy undermines equal opportunities for girls by unfairly and unlawfully allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports.

The group claimed that its members lost opportunities to advance in competition, faced diminished chances for college recruitment, and carried “the mental burden of knowing that their rights are secondary.”

“Minnesota is failing its female athletes,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Rory Gray said in late August when the case proceeded to oral arguments. “The state is putting males ahead of females, telling girls their hard work may never be enough to win and that they don’t deserve fairness and safety.”

The plaintiffs asked the court to declare that Title IX requires Minnesota to restrict female-designated sports to biological females and that federal law preempts contrary state policies.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minnesota Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero, Minnesota Education Commissioner Willie Jett, MSHSL Executive Director Erich Martens, and several school districts are named as defendants.

In defending the policy, Ellison’s office argued that Title IX does not override the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA), which explicitly prohibits discrimination in education based on gender identity.

State attorneys said that “guidance from the federal executive branch on transgender student athletes under Title IX has varied dramatically” and is “seemingly dependent upon the outcome of presidential elections” but that the MHRA has remained consistent and the MSHSL bylaw has been in place since 2016 without legal challenge until this case.

FAU’s complaint cited President Donald Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which the group said affirms that Title IX protects girls’ sports by reserving female competition exclusively for biological females. Earlier in 2025, Ellison’s office issued a legal opinion concluding that Trump’s order does not override Minnesota law.

The judge ultimately found that FAU had not demonstrated a likelihood of success under Title IX and that the balance of harms and public interest weighed against issuing an injunction. The ruling means that males who identify as female can continue to play on teams aligned with their gender identity while the case moves forward.

FAU now has 30 days to appeal to the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, setting the stage for a broader legal test of how federal courts reconcile Title IX’s protections with state laws such as the MHRA in disputes over transgender participation in school sports.

Alliance Defending Freedom and Ellison’s office did not respond to requests for comment.