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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison responded to dozens of school board members who are urging the state to keep biological males out of girls sports by saying the issue “doesn’t harm anyone.”
A letter penned by more than 40 school board members expressing support for policy revisions to enforce Title IX and protect girls sports prompted the response from Ellison this week.
“Letting the very small number of transgender students in Minnesota play on their school sports teams doesn’t harm anyone, but segregating them does,” part of Ellison’s statement read.
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Ellison said this despite the fact that multiple girls high school athletes in his state have spoken out about how the experience of facing trans athletes has impacted them, and some have even filed a lawsuit over the issue.
Three anonymous Minnesota high school girls filed a lawsuit against the state’s education agencies in the spring after having to compete against a transgender softball pitcher.
One of the plaintiffs previously told Fox News Digital about what it was like playing against the trans pitcher.
“This issue has affected me in ways that I never imagined. It’s simply unfair, and I hate that nothing is happening to change that. Boys should not be able to take girls’ spots on teams just because they are capable of doing so. I hope that more girls affected by this issue will stand up against this.” the player said.
Another anonymous player directly called out Ellison for supporting the policies that have allowed the trans pitcher to play against females.
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Champlin Park and Eagan players shake hands after the quarterfinals round of the Minnesota Girls Softball State Tournament. (Amber Harding/OutKick)
“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.
Former White Bear Lake High School softball player Kendall Kotzmacher previously told Fox News Digital that losing to a trans pitcher in the state tournament left her in tears.
“How do you acknowledge that you lost to a biological male? How do you process those events that happened? And that was something that entire night, I still couldn’t do it. … We lost to a biological male in a female state tournament,” Kotzmacher said.
Minnesota’s education agencies face a deadline Friday from the U.S. Department of Education to change their trans athlete policies. President Donald Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order in February, but Minnesota was one of the first states to openly defy the order.
Ellison then filed a lawsuit against Trump and the Department of Justice over the executive order and appears staunchly opposed to complying with the DOE’s Friday deadline.
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Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP)
“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’s statement continued.
“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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