The Trump administration has threatened legal action against Minnesota for allegedly violating Title IX by allowing transgender-identifying males to compete in girls sports.
The federal Department of Education (DOE) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a Notice of Violation on Sept. 30 to the state, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), and the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL). The notice states that they must comply with the federal Title IX statute or face a Justice Department referral.
The joint finding alleges that, over the course of several years, MDE and MSHSL allowed male athletes identifying as transgender to compete on girls teams for Alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, lacrosse, track and field, volleyball, and fast-pitch softball. It also found that these athletes were allowed to occupy female spaces.
The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights stated that it launched its initial investigations after MSHSL publicly declared its intention to violate federal antidiscrimination law and after President Donald Trump issued his executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” in February.
The pace of the investigations stepped up in June, and that same month, HHS initiated a compliance review of MDE and MSHSL after a transgender-identifying athlete from Champlin Park High School dominated an MSHSL girls softball match, leading Champlin to a state championship.
“The male pitcher overpowered female athletes during five consecutive matches, only giving up one earned run over the course of 35 innings and striking out 27 female batters,” reads a DOE statement, which does not name the pitcher.
Craig Trainor, DOE acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said: “For too many years, Minnesota’s political leadership has found itself on the wrong side of justice, common sense, and the American people.”
Trainor said the Trump administration will not allow Minnesota or any other state “to sacrifice the safety, fair treatment, and dignity of its female students to appease the false idols of radical gender ideology.”
Once an education program or entity takes federal funds, Title IX compliance becomes mandatory, and the federal government will hold states accountable, he said.
Paula Stannard, director of the HHS Office of Civil Rights, said that the state, by allowing transgender-identifying athletes to compete in girls sports, “denies females the equal opportunities under Title IX that they deserve in athletic competition.”
“Minnesota fails to recognize the fundamental biological differences between males and females—differences that justify single-sex teams and are essential to ensuring fair and safe competition for girls and women,” she said.
The DOE and HHS have issued a proposed resolution agreement to MDE and MSHSL to resolve their Title IX violations within 10 days or risk imminent enforcement action.
Conditions of the proposed agreement would require MDE and MSHSL to rescind or revise any guidance permitting males to compete in girls sports in order to comply with Title IX and acknowledge that federal law preempts state law on this issue.
MDE would also be required to send a statewide notice to all federally funded entities operating interscholastic athletic programs, mandating their strict compliance with Title IX by separating athletics and intimate facilities based on sex and not gender identity. Such entities would have to adopt biology-based definitions of “male” and “female” or risk losing federal funding.
They would also be required to “restore to female athletes all records and titles misappropriated by male athletes competing in female categories, and send each female a letter of apology on behalf of the State of Minnesota for allowing her educational experience to be marred by sex discrimination.”
MDE would also be required to demand in writing that “MSHSL take parallel action.”
MDE did not respond to a request for comment.
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