Softball players from Maple Grove and Farmington high schools have filed a lawsuit against Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and the Minnesota State High School League over its policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports.
Female Athletes United, which represents players from both high schools, filed the lawsuit on Monday.
Suzanne Beecher, who serves as legal counsel for Center for Conscience Initiatives at Alliance Defending Freedom, is one of the attorneys representing the girls.
"So Title IX was designed to provide women with opportunities, equal opportunities to compete," Beecher tells WCCO. "And we know that males enjoy biological and physiological advantages over women. So by allowing males to compete in girls sports, it's taking away that level playing field for girls, which violates federal law, goes against Title IX. So we're challenging that policy to try to protect women and girls in Minnesota."
In 2015 the MSHSL approved a policy opening girls sports to transgender student-athletes, effective for the 2015-16 school year.
The lawsuit sites an unnamed metro-area player competing in softball that the plaintiffs allege was born male. It alleges the player creates "an unsafe environment and unfair competition."
"The lawsuits focusing on softball, the student athletes who submitted declarations are softball players, and in softball there's pitching and there's batting," Beecher explained. "So these, when these girls come up to bat and when a male athlete is pitching, that additional strength and wingspan, the increased spin on the ball, all of that puts them at risk, of just at safety risks. So girls have less dense bones compared to males. Like, males have stronger muscles, so all of that is coming into play and makes it a safety concern in addition to the fairness concerns presented by policies like Minnesota's."
WCCO Radio reached out to both Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison as well as the MSHSL for comment. The MSHSL has yet to respond but Ellison did respond with the following:
"In addition to getting exercise and the fun of competition, playing sports comes with so many benefits for young peoplem," the attorney general says. "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. 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."
Willie Jett, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Education, and Rebecca Lucero, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, are also named in the lawsuit.
Earlier this year, Ellison sued the Trump Administration due to "bullying" of trans children through executive orders titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports." Ellison, along with the MSHSL, said the executive orders violated the Minnesota Constitution, particularly the equal protection clause.
Beecher said those executive orders clarified Title IX to prevent there from being inequality based on sex.
"Title IX is very clear in its protections for women and girls for providing female athletes with equal opportunities so that policies like Minnesota's which fail to protect girls in their sports and are leading to girls being displaced and defeated," she adds. "We see that's a clear violation of Title IX, and so we're hopeful that the court will also recognize that."