The Department of Education (ED) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have threatened Minnesota’s federal athletics funding unless the state ends its inclusive policies for trans athletes.

A press release issued last week said the administration has found the state in violation of both an anti-trans executive order and Title IX “by allowing males to compete in female sports and occupy female intimate facilities.”

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Title IX is the federal law that bans discrimination on the basis of sex in education. The law has been used by both pro- and anti-LGBTQ+ rights advocates to argue for and against equal rights.

The current administration has argued that Title IX prohibits transgender people from participating in school sports, using restrooms that match their gender identity, and having educators and government education officials recognize their gender identity (including names and pronouns). These positions effectively deny trans students an equal education when it comes to specific school programs and facilities segregated based on their sex assigned at birth.

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The ED and HHS claimed the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) have “allowed male athletes to compete on the girls’ Alpine ski team, the girls’ Nordic skiing team, the girls’ lacrosse team, the girls’ track and field team, the girls’ volleyball team, and the girls’ fastpitch softball team.”

The note repeatedly misgenders trans women and girls and slammed a “male athlete” from Champlin Park High School for doing well in a softball season.

ED’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said Minnesota leaders are “on the wrong side of justice, common sense, and the American people,” and that the administration “will not allow Minnesota or any other state to sacrifice the safety, fair treatment, and dignity of its female students to appease the false idols of radical gender ideology.”

“Once an education program or entity takes federal funds,” he continued, “Title IX compliance becomes mandatory. And the federal government will hold Minnesota accountable until it recognizes that fact.” 

The notice gave state officials 10 days to update their policies or risk losing federal funding.

In April, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced his filing of a federal lawsuit challenging the president’s anti-trans executive order directing agencies to withhold federal funding from educational programs that allow transgender girls to compete on women’s sports teams, under the claim that it violates both constitutional rights and Title IX of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

On February 20, Ellison issued a formal legal opinion expressing concerns that complying with the executive order entitled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” would violate the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA).

“We will not let a small group of vulnerable children who are only trying to be healthy and live their lives be demonized,” Ellison said at the time, adding, “The bottom line is: In our Minnesota, everyone is included in the circle of our compassion, and no one is out of our circle of protection.”

 “Sometimes countries face a moment like this—faced with a leader bent on destroying entire communities and instilling fear in those who protect them,” Ellison said in the press conference. “The lessons of history tell us a leader like that doesn’t stop at one community—after he’s destroyed one, he goes after another, and another, and another.”

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