Transgender athletes in girls sports ‘doesn’t harm anyone,’ Minnesota AG says

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison responded to dozens of school board members who called on the state to keep biological males out of girls’ sports by saying the issue “didn’t hurt anyone.”

A letter from more than 40 school board members expressing support for enforcing Title IX and policy revisions to protect girls’ sports prompted Ellison’s response this week.

Here’s part of Ellison’s statement: “Allowing the very small number of transgender students in Minnesota to play on school sports teams doesn’t hurt anyone, but segregating them does.”

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Ellison said this despite the fact that many girls’ high school athletes in his state have spoken out about how their experience of encountering transgender athletes has affected them, and some have even filed lawsuits over the issue.

Three Minnesota high school girls sued the state’s educational institutions in the spring after they were forced to compete against a transgender softball player.

One of the plaintiffs previously told Fox News Digital what it was like to play against the trans shooter.

“This issue has affected me in ways I never imagined. It’s totally unfair and I hate that there’s nothing to change it. Boys shouldn’t be able to replace girls on teams just because they’re capable of doing so. I hope more girls affected by this issue speak out.” said the player.

Another anonymous player directly called out Ellison for supporting policies that allow transgender pitchers to play against women.

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“It’s really sad to know [Ellison] does not take the rights of girls and women seriously. It allows boys to compete with girls and it’s unsafe and completely unfair. It is absolutely disgusting and wrong to know that AG Ellison fully supports allowing boys and men to take advantage of women in sports,” an unnamed 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 transgender pitcher in the state tournament brought her to tears.

“How do you accept that you lost to a biological male? How do you process these events that happened? It was like this all night long, I still couldn’t … we lost to a biological male in the women’s state tournament,” Kotzmacher said.

Minnesota’s educational institutions face a deadline On Friday, the US Department of Education made a statement about changing its transgender athlete policies. President Donald Trump signed the “Exclusion of Men from Women’s Sports” executive order in February, but Minnesota was one of the first states to publicly defy the order.

Ellison later sued Trump and the Justice Department over the executive order, and the DOE appears staunchly opposed to complying with the Friday deadline.

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Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Wednesday announced a $60.5 million settlement with e-cigarette company Juul and tobacco giant Altria. (Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune via AP)

“Exclusion is a violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which has protected transgender children’s rights 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 children across Minnesota, but this issue is currently before the courts. The federal government’s threats violate the U.S. Constitution, Minnesota law, and Title IX itself. I fight to prevent these harmful cuts, stop the Administration’s bullying of transgender children who want to live their lives in peace, and protect the rights and freedoms of all our students in Minnesota.”

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