NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
Minnesota education agencies face a deadline Friday from the U.S. Department of Education to change their policies on trans athletes. Now, more than 40 school board members from districts across the state have openly supported DOE compliance as the deadline approaches.
School board members wrote a letter to state leaders in Saint Paul earlier this week — Education Commissioner Willie Jett, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota State High School League CEO Erich Martens — urging them to comply with President Donald Trump’s administration on the issue.
“How do we protect all students in our district? Whether in the locker room or on the playing field,” wrote Prior Lake Savage Area School Board member Lisa Atkinson. “As school districts, we can’t risk losing funding. It’s really, really important to us. This is an opportunity for our state to find a way to implement policies that truly protect all students.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PakGazette.Com
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)
Board members also expressed anxiety about federal funding cuts “that would negatively impact educational programs, extracurricular activities and resources for more than 875,000 students across the state.”
Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports” states that schools that allow biological males to compete in women’s sports will be subject to a federal funding freeze.
Ellison, who has been a strong supporter of trans athletes in women’s sports and even filed a lawsuit against Trump and the US Department of Justice for their recent efforts to enforce Title IX, 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 competitors with respect, and how to win with grace and lose with dignity. Allowing a small number of transgender students in Minnesota to play on their school sports teams doesn’t hurt anyone, but segregating them does. Exclusion is a violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which has protected the rights of trans children 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 funding for children’s education throughout Minnesota, but this matter is before the courts right now. The federal government’s threats violate the U.S. Constitution, Minnesota law, and Title IX itself. I am fighting to prevent these harmful cuts, stop the Administration’s harassment of transgender children who just want to live their lives in peace, and protect the rights and freedoms of all of our students in Minnesota.”
INSIDE GAVIN NEWSOM’S TRANSGENDER VOLLEYBALL CRISIS
Champlin Park and Eagan players shake hands after the quarterfinal round of the Minnesota Women’s Softball State Tournament. (Amber Harding/OutKick)
Meanwhile, several female athletes have taken steps to try to pressure their state to change its policies as well.
Three unnamed girls softball players filed a lawsuit against state agencies after having to confront a trans Champlin Park High School pitcher last season. Trans pitcher Marissa Rothenberger led Champlin Park to a state championship in the spring, with one of the best playoff stats in all of Minnesota.
“It’s really disturbing to know that [Ellison] does not take the rights of girls and women seriously. You are allowing boys to compete with girls, and that is unsafe and completely unfair. “To know that AG Ellison fully supports allowing boys and men to take advantage of women in sports is absolutely disgusting and wrong,” an anonymous player previously told Pak Gazette Digital.
Meanwhile, former White Bear Lake High School softball player Kendall Kotzmacher has spoken out publicly against the state and Gov. Tim Walz for allowing men to play women’s sports, especially after Walz himself coached high school football decades ago and saw the physical feats of male athletes up close.
“As a coach, you should see the differences and the big difference there is between biological men and biological women,” Kotzmacher told Pak Gazette Digital.
The state legislature failed to pass a bill that would have banned trans athletes from playing women’s sports, the “Women’s Sports Preservation Act,” in March. He was one vote short of advancing to Walz’s desk. Meanwhile, state lawmaker Liish Kozlowski, who identifies as “non-binary,” called the bill “another version of state-sanctioned harassment and genocide.”
