11 Minnesota school districts back proposal to keep males out of girls’ sports 

Eleven Minnesota school districts support an initiative to keep trans-identifying males out of girls’ sports, according to Make It Fair Minnesota.

The group says it has enough support to put a proposed rule change before Minnesota State High School League members. The effort would let schools protect female athletes without changing state law.

Elk River Area Schools, a district near Minneapolis with about 14,500 students, is the largest district openly backing the proposal. Its school board voted 4-3 to approve a resolution last month.

Brainerd Public Schools in central Minnesota, which has about 6,000 students, voted unanimously last month to let the proposal move through the MSHSL’s review process.

“It’s about recognizing that biological differences in strength, speed, endurance and physical development matter in competitive athletics,” Brainerd school board member Randy Heidmann explained during the meeting.

School boards in Bemidji and Detroit Lakes in northern Minnesota approved similar letters.

The proposal would have schools classify students by sex, not so-called gender identity, when determining sports teams.

“A student who participates in a sex-separated sport shall participate on the team consistent with their biological sex at birth,” the amendment states.

Other school boards have backed a review without endorsing a rule change.

Anoka-Hennepin school board member Zach Arco took this approach at a meeting earlier this month, Alpha News reported.

“Perhaps most schools will oppose this amendment. Perhaps most schools will support it. But neither outcome eliminates the process,” he said.

The effort comes amid a yearslong argument among Minnesotans over trans athletes in girls’ sports.

As Heartlander News previously reported, controversy surrounded male pitcher Marissa Rothenberger, who helped Champlin Park win a softball state title last year, pitching a three-hit shutout in the state championship game.

Earlier this year, federal officials referred Minnesota’s sports policies to the Justice Department after state officials refused to negotiate a proposed settlement.

The DOJ sued the state Education Department in March, accusing it of violating Title IX, which prevents sex-based discrimination in schools receiving federal funding.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed girls’ rights in the department’s announcement.

“We will not allow girls to be denied equal opportunity and basic privacy,” he said.

Last year, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison had argued that banning transgender athletes from teams matching their gender identity would violate the state’s Human Rights Act.

This past June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia v. B.P.J. that schools can base athletic participation on anatomical sex under Title IX and the Constitution.

Make It Fair Minnesota says this ruling clears the way for its proposal. The ruling didn’t change Minnesota’s policies.

The group says schools should receive the proposal by Nov. 1. Its voting process guide lists a Feb. 15 deadline for regional votes. At least nine of the league’s 16 regions must back it before the Representative Assembly can consider it in May. Two-thirds of the assembly must approve it to change the policy.