03/30/26 02:04:00
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03/30 14:02 CDT Trump administration sues Minnesota over transgender athletes
in girls sports
Trump administration sues Minnesota over transgender athletes in girls sports
By STEVE KARNOWSKI
Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) --- The Trump administration sued Minnesota and its school
athletics governing body on Monday, carrying out a threat to punish the state
for allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports.
The lawsuit is part of a broader fight over the rights of transgender youth.
More than two dozen states have laws prohibiting transgender women and girls
from participating in certain sports and some have barred gender-affirming
surgeries for minors. Courts have blocked some of those policies.
In the lawsuit filed Monday, the Justice Department alleges the state
Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League are
violating Title IX, a federal law against sex discrimination in educational
programs that receive federal money.
"The Trump Administration does not tolerate flawed state policies that ignore
biological reality and unfairly undermine girls on the playing field," Attorney
General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.
Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the lawsuit "a sad
attempt to get attention" over an issue that has already been in litigation for
months. He said he'll keep fighting.
"It is astonishing that any president would try to target, shame, and harass
children just trying to be themselves, let alone a president with so many
actual problems to address," Ellison said in a statement.
League officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The administration has filed similar lawsuits against Maine and California, and
has threatened the federal funding of some universities over transgender
athletes, including San Jose State in California and the University of
Pennsylvania.
Minnesota officials have long resisted the federal push to ban trans athletes
from girls sports. Ellison filed a preemptive lawsuit last April, saying
Minnesota's human rights act supersedes executive orders issued by President
Donald Trump last year. The lawsuit also says the state is already in
compliance with Title IX. A ruling is pending on the federal government's
motion to dismiss that case.
The Justice Department said in a statement that Minnesota violates Title IX "by
requiring girls to compete against boys in athletic competitions that are
designated exclusively for girls and allowing boys to invade intimate spaces
designated exclusively for girls, such as multi-person locker rooms and
bathrooms."
To buttress its claims that trans athletes have an unfair advantage, the
lawsuit highlights the case of a trans pitcher on the Champlin Park High School
girls varsity fastpitch softball team who helped lead the school to a 6-0
victory in a state championship game in 2025.
The Trump administration also reversed the Biden administration's
interpretation of Title IX, which held that its provisions prohibiting
discrimination on the basis of sex also extended to gender identity.
According to the Justice Department, Minnesota's Department of Education
receives more than $3 billion annually in federal funding from the U.S.
Departments of Education and Health and Human Services. It says that funding is
contingent on compliance with Title IX.
The lawsuit asks a federal court in Minnesota to declare the state in violation
of Title IX and order it to prohibit transgender girls from competing in girls'
prep sports.
The civil rights offices at the Education and Health and Human Services put the
state and league on notice last September that they faced legal action if they
didn't stop violating the federal law.
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