Twin Cities lawyer weighs in on Trump's executive order to ban transgender athletes from women's sports
MINNEAPOLIS — On Wednesday, President Trump signed a new executive order that bans transgender athletes from women's sports. Schools that don't comply could lose federal funding and face legal action.
The executive order is titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," the president saying, "From now on women's sports will be only for women."
"What this order will do is instruct the Department of Justice to bring Title IX enforcement lawsuits against educational institutions that allow trans women and girls to participate in sports," M Boulette, a Twin Cities lawyer, said.
Minnesota has the Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination of many kinds in many places — including education — based on protected class, such as sexual orientation and gender identity.
"One would hope in a perfect world, Title IX and the Minnesota Human Rights Act would work hand and glove," Boulette said. "Complying with Trump's interpretation of Title IX could leave one in conflict with the Minnesota Rights Act and its requirements"
Minnesota GOP Sen. Carla Nelson said, "Title IX was passed to increase opportunities for women and girls, but too often, it is being twisted to deny them equal opportunities in sports. The White House Executive Order affirms the protections and opportunities of Title IX that every girl and woman deserves: sports teams and competitions that are exclusively for them."
DFL Rep. Leigh Finke criticized the order.
"It is very clear in our Minnesota Human Rights Act that we do not separate out and remove trans people from our lived experiences of society," she said. "I cannot overstate what it feels like to be a member of a community who is seeing our rights removed… it's extremely scary, terrifying, and we warned about this and now we are living it, and we can't just allow it to happen because this is what he said he would do."
But Boulette says you might see changes if you haven't already.
"Regardless if the president can do this, that many institutions feel like they have no choice but comply in advance," Boulette said.
We don't know how many transgender athletes compete in women's sports, but experts believe it's rare. In fact, last year the NCAA president told Congress that he knew of fewer than 10 transgender athletes in college sports.
The Minnesota State High School League made a statement on Thursday that it will continue to allow students to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity.
