A lawsuit was filed Monday against Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison, Minnesota State High School League executive director Erich Martens and numerous others by a group representing three metro high school softball athletes centered on the state allowing an athlete to play high school softball who plaintiffs allege was born male.
The organization behind the suit is Female Athletes United, which is representing one softball player from Maple Grove and two from Farmington. The suit cites an unfair playing field.
The MSHSL voted in 2015 to allow the inclusion of transgender athletes into girls sports. That decision came back under fire on Feb. 5, when President Trump signed an executive order aimed at prohibiting transgender women and girls from competing in female sports.
At the time, the Minnesota State High School League said the executive order is at odds with the Human Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Minnesota Constitution, which prohibits discrimination “against any person in any protected class, which includes sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The U.S. Department of Education then announced it was launching an investigation into the high school athletic associations in Minnesota and California.
Ellison filed a suit against the Trump administration last month, saying in part that the he viewed the President’s executive orders as “bullying” of transgender children.
The lawsuit states that Minnesota’s policy “expands opportunities for male athletes to compete and experience victory at the expense of female athletes. Minnesota’s female athletes suffer as a result — experiencing fewer opportunities to play, win, advance, and receive recognition in their own. And these female athletes also suffer the mental burden of knowing that their rights are secondary. Their hard work may never be enough to win.”
The lawsuit describes the three represented players’ interactions with the athlete it alleges to be male as one player’s team repeatedly losing to and struggling to score against the pitcher, one pitcher having to compete with the other athlete for playing time on a club team and the third athlete getting hit by a pitch thrown by the alleged male athlete.
The suit stated that the athletes didn’t believe it was “fair” that that would have to potentially compete against the alleged male athlete in postseason competition.
Section softball tournaments opened across the state this week.
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