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Minnesota’s education agencies face a deadline Friday from the U.S. Department of Education to change its trans athlete policies. Now, more than 40 school board members from districts across the state have now openly supported complying with the DOE as the deadline nears.
The school board members penned a letter to state leaders in Saint Paul earlier this week – Education Commissioner Willie Jett, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and executive director of the Minnesota State High School League Erich Martens – urging them to comply with President Donald Trump’s administration on the issue.
“How are we protecting all students in our district. So, whether it’s in the locker rooms or on the playing field,” wrote Lisa Atkinson, a member of the Prior Lake Savage Area Schools Board. “As school districts, we cannot risk the loss in funding. It’s really that important to us. This is an opportunity for our state to figure out a way to put in policies that really protect all students.”
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The sun shines on the Minnesota State Capitol on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, in St. Paul, on the opening day of the 2024 session of the Minnesota Legislature. (AP Photo/Steve Karnowski)
The board members also expressed anxiety over federal funding cuts “that would adversely affect educational programs, extracurricular activities and resources for over 875,000 students statewide.”
Trump’s Feb. 5 “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order states that schools who allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports will be subject to federal funding freezes.
Ellison, who has been a staunch supporter of trans athletes in girls’ sports and has even filed a lawsuit against Trump and the U.S. Department of Justice for its recent Title IX enforcement efforts, responded to the letter in a statement.
“School sports aren’t just a good way to get exercise, they help kids build friendships, make them feel like they belong, and teach them important life lessons, like how to work as a team, how to treat their competition with respect, and how to win with grace and lose with dignity. Letting the very small number of transgender students in Minnesota play on their school sports teams doesn’t harm anyone, but segregating them does. Exclusion is a violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which has protected the rights of trans kids to participate in all extracurricular activities for decades,” Ellison said, via Fox 9.
“I too am concerned about the Trump Administration’s threats to cut education funding for kids across Minnesota, but this matter is before the court right now. The federal government’s threats violate the U.S. Constitution, Minnesota law, and Title IX itself. I’m fighting to prevent these harmful cuts, stop the Administration’s bullying of transgender kids who just want to live their lives in peace, and protect the rights and freedoms of all our students in Minnesota.”
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Champlin Park and Eagan players shake hands following the quarterfinals round of the Minnesota Girls’ Softball State Tournament. (Amber Harding/OutKick)
Meanwhile, multiple girls’ athletes have taken action to try and push their state to change its policies as well.
Three anonymous girls’ softball players have filed a lawsuit against state agencies after having to face a trans pitcher from Champlin Park High School last season. The trans pitcher, Marissa Rothenberger, led Champlin Park to a state championship in the spring, with one of the best playoff stat lines in all of Minnesota.
“It’s really upsetting to know that [Ellison] isn’t taking rights of girls and women seriously. He is allowing boys to compete with girls, and it is not safe and completely unfair. To know that AG Ellison is in complete support of letting boys and men take advantage of females in sports is absolutely disgusting and wrong,” one anonymous player previously told Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, former White Bear Lake High School softball player Kendall Kotzmacher has publicly spoken out against the state and Gov. Tim Walz for letting males play in girls’ sports, especially after Walz himself coached high school football decades ago, and saw the physical prowess of male athletes up-close.
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“As a coach, you should see the differences and the vast difference that there are between biological males and biological females,” Kotzmacher told Fox News Digital.
The state legislature failed to pass a bill that would have banned trans athletes from girls’ sports, the “Preserving Girls’ Sports Act,” back in March. It fell one vote shy of advancing to Walz’s desk. Meanwhile, state lawmaker Rep. Liish Kozlowski, who identifies as “non-binary,” called the bill “another version of state-sanctioned bullying and genocide.”
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