Minnesota Female Athletes Sue Attorney General Over Biological Males Playing in Girls’ Sports

A sports advocacy group is suing Minnesota’s attorney general on behalf of three female softball players over a state policy that allows males to compete in female sports.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a non-profit legal group, filed a lawsuit earlier this week on behalf of Female Athletes United (FAU) to remove transgender athletes from softball, and particularly a trans pitcher who is dominating the sport. 

FAU is an organization that advocates to protect fairness, safety, and equal opportunity for women and girls in sports, ADF reports. Some of the organization’s members include three high school softball players who have been forced to compete against a male athlete. 

One student who is currently a junior has competed against the trans-identifying athlete and lost in games during the regular season and sectionals, which prevented her team from advancing to the state tournament. During one game, the junior student’s team did not score a single point, and the male athlete pitched seven strikeouts. 

Another athlete, also a junior, is a top pitcher who has already committed to play collegiate softball. This FAU member was on the same club team as the male athlete until she found out that she would have to compete against him for pitching time. She then decided to quit the club team and believes she will likely have to compete against him at the state softball tournament this season.

Meanwhile, the third athlete, identified as E.P. in the lawsuit, is a sophomore and was hit by a pitch thrown by the male athlete during club softball. 

She described the pain as more intense than being hit by pitches thrown by girls, due to their strength and speed.

According to the lawsuit, the girls point out that the trans athletes are “bigger, stronger, and taller” than they are, and that it “translates to a significant advantage in pitching, hitting, and running,” which they describe as “unsafe and unfair.” 

The plaintiffs allege that Minnesota protects the rights of transgender-identifying girls to play in girls’ sports, “These sports are not actually reserved for females. And as a result, boys are displacing and defeating girls in competitive sports,” they said.

“Minnesota is failing its female athletes. The state is putting the rights of males ahead of females, telling girls their hard work may never be enough to win and that they don’t deserve fairness and safety,” said ADF legal counsel Suzanne Beecher. 

“By sacrificing protection for female athletes, Minnesota fails to offer girls equal treatment and opportunity, violating Title IX’s provisions. Our client, Female Athletes United, is right to stand up for its members by challenging the state’s discriminatory policy and advocate for true equality in sports,” she added. 

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minnesota State High School League executive director Erich Martens, Minnesota Department of Human Rights commissioner Rebecca Lucero, and Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett are named as defendants in the lawsuit. 

For the last 10 years, the Minnesota State High School League has overseen a policy that allows trans athletes to compete in girls sports. 

Ellison released a statement responding to the lawsuit.

“In addition to getting exercise and the fun of competition, playing sports comes with so many benefits for young people. You build friendships that can last a lifetime, you learn how to work as part of a team, and you get to feel like you belong,” Ellison said. 

“I believe it is wrong to single out one group of students, who already face higher levels of bullying and harassment, and tell these kids they cannot be on the team because of who they are. I will continue to defend the rights of all students to play sports with their friends and peers.”

Meanwhile, Ellison is suing President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice over the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order.

Trump signed the order in February requiring schools, colleges, and athletic associations that “deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms” to stop the practice, and it directs state attorneys general to identify best practices for enforcing the mandate.

However, Ellison said he would defy the order. Months later, Ellison says the Justice Department sent him a letter threatening legal action if the state did not comply with the order. The Minnesota attorney general moved to sue first, Fox News reports. 

“I’m not going to sit around waiting for the Trump administration to sue Minnesota. Today, Minnesota is suing him and his administration because we will not participate in this shameful bullying,” Ellison said. “We will not let a small group of vulnerable children who are only trying be healthy and live their lives be demonized.”

The White House responded to the lawsuit, condemning the attorney general for refusing to protect young women in sports. 

“Why would a grown man sue the Trump administration to allow other biological males to participate in women’s sports? This is creepy and anti-woman,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields told Fox News.

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