Minnesota softball players sue Keith Ellison, state high school league over transgender athlete policy

Several metro-area high school softball players are suing Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and other state leaders to remove transgender athletes from their sport.

In a federal lawsuit filed Monday, an organization representing the players from two high schools, Female Athletes United, alleges in the suit that a decade-old Minnesota policy allowing transgender athletes to play has created an unsafe environment and unfair competition for the Maple Grove High and Farmington High players. The suit focuses on an unnamed metro-area player who the plaintiffs allege was born male.

In the suit, the softball players state they do not know what “medical interventions, if any,” the player has received. The players said the state created an uneven playing field for female athletes by allowing males to compete in women’s sports “regardless of any pharmaceutical intervention, and testosterone suppression and puberty blockers.”

The Minnesota State High School League’s board of directors in 2015 voted to open girls sports to transgender student-athletes. The decision took effect for the 2015-16 school year and made Minnesota the 33rd state to adopt a formal transgender student policy.

Attorneys who filed a lawsuit on behalf of Female Athletes United 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 Suzanne Beecher, an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit legal organization, in a statement. “By sacrificing protection for female athletes, Minnesota fails to offer girls equal treatment and opportunity, violating Title IX’s provisions.”

In addition to Ellison, other officials named in the suit are Erich Martens, MSHSL executive director; Willie Jett, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Education; and Rebecca Lucero, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

The Minnesota Star Tribune has reached out to all named parties for comment.

According to the suit, the plaintiffs “all believe that it is unsafe and unfair to play against a male athlete, particularly in softball,” and that female athletes are at a “significant disadvantage” against male athletes.

“Additionally, they reasonably fear that they could be injured,” according to the suit, which describes the player as a dominant pitcher. The plaintiffs are seeking “the benefits of competing against only women and girls in athletic competitions.”

The MSHSL’s current bylaw allows participation for all students “consistent with their gender identity or expression in an environment free from discrimination with an equal opportunity for participation in athletics and fine arts.” Citing the Data Privacy Act, the MSHSL does not require, nor does it keep, records of transgender athletes in Minnesota.

In April, Ellison sued the Trump administration over two executive orders that Ellison said amount to “bullying” of trans children. In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which declared a person’s sex as the gender assigned at birth and banned transgender people from participating in girls and women’s sports. Last month, the Trump administration’s Department of Justice sued Maine over a sports policy allowing transgender participation.

Female Athletes United in February asked to join a lawsuit in New Hampshire to uphold Trump’s executive order. Attorneys for Alliance Defending Freedom filed a motion on behalf of FAU to enter the lawsuit where two transgender female students in the state challenged both the federal order and the state prohibiting transgender girls from competition in girls sports.

Ellison and the MSHSL’s administration previously stated that the federal order is in direct violation of the equal protection clause of the Minnesota Constitution.

Christopher Vondracek, Sarah Nelson and Nick Williams of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.