Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said having biological males compete with girls in school athletics "doesn't harm anyone."
"School sports aren't just a good way to get exercise," Ellison said. "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 competition with respect, and how to win with grace and lose with dignity.
"Letting the very small number of transgender students in Minnesota play on their school sports teams doesn't harm anyone, but segregating them does."
A number of school board members in southeastern Minnesota have launched a campaign calling on the state to stop allowing transgender athletes to compete with girls. KTTC reported that more than a dozen of them have said they support banning transgender students from participating in girls' sports.
The departments of Education and Health and Human Services, via their Office for Civil Rights, announced in late September that they found Minnesota violated Title IX by permitting transgender athletes to compete with girls and to use female-designated facilities.
The federal agencies gave the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League a 10-day deadline to comply with conditions or risk "imminent enforcement action."
That deadline is Friday.
Ellison in April filed a preemptive lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to block it from acting against Minnesota in the way it is taking on Maine under a federal push to ban transgender athletes from competing with girls and women.
His lawsuit asked the court to declare President Donald Trump's two executive orders on the matter — and letters that the Department of Justice has sent to Minnesota threatening to cut off education funding if the state doesn't comply — unconstitutional and bar their enforcement.
On Tuesday, he said he wouldn't back down from the Trump administration.
"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," Ellison said in a statement.
"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."
Trump signed an executive order in February intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports.
The order, titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration's view, which interprets "sex" as the gender someone was assigned at birth.
Female athletes and women's sports advocates have increasingly voiced concerns that allowing transgender women to compete in women's athletics can undermine fair competition, including former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines and former tennis great Martina Navratilova.
Newsmax has contacted Ellison's office for comment.
Newsmax wires contributed to this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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