(The Center Square) – Minnesota House Republicans were unable to pass a bill that would have limited participation in girls sports to students designated female at birth.
This marks the second defeat for the measure this legislative biennium. The vote comes amid a federal lawsuit challenging Minnesota's policies allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed the lawsuit March 30 against the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League, arguing the state’s policies violate Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs.
“The Trump Administration does not tolerate flawed state policies that ignore biological reality and unfairly undermine girls on the playing field,” former U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.
Republicans said the lawsuit underscores the urgency of passing this bill to bring the state’s policies in line with federal standards.
“Protecting girls is not hate,” said Rep. Krista Knudsen, R-Lake Shore. “When biological males enter girls’ sports, girls lose. They lose medals, they lose roster spots, they lose college scholarships and they lose their safety.”
Knudsen was one of the sponsors of HF 2685, which would require school-sponsored interscholastic, intramural, or club athletic teams to be based on sex at birth. The Minnesota State High School League has allowed transgender athletes to compete in girls sports since 2015.
All House Republicans voted in favor of the measure, while all DFLers opposed it. The vote failed 67-66 along party lines, the same result seen in March 2025.
The House also failed to advance two other related bills this session, HF12, which would restrict female sports teams to the female sex, and HF1233, which would create a women’s athletics exemption in the state Human Rights Act.
Republicans say the current policies disadvantage female athletes in Minnesota.
“Title IX was created to ensure that girls and women had equal opportunity in sports, opportunities that had long been denied,” said Rep. Mike Wiener, R-Long Prairie. “But if biological males are allowed to compete in female categories, these opportunities erode.”
State Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office is representing Minnesota in the federal case, said his office will defend transgender students’ rights.
"In April of last year, I sued the Trump administration to stop them from targeting trans kids who just want to play on their school team," Ellison said previously in a statement to The Center Square. "This new suit is just a sad attempt to get attention over something that's already been in litigation for months."
DFL lawmakers argued that Minnesota law already protects transgender students.
“We have inclusion as the law of Minnesota,” said Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul. “That law has neither been changed nor overturned.”
DFL lawmakers also questioned the premise that the bill would protect girls.
“My colleagues across the aisle say that you are bringing this to protect women and girls and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” said Rep. Kelly Moller, DFL-Shoreview. “The real threat to women and girls is sexual assault and gender-based violence.”
House Republicans expressed frustration over the repeated defeats of this legislation. State Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, is one of the sponsors of the bill, and called out Democrats following its failure.
“Every House Democrat voted in favor of sex-based discrimination,” Scott said. “By allowing biological males to compete in biological girls’ competitions, all we’ve fought for through Title IX and women’s athletics is meaningless. Yet not one House Democrat could find the courage to stand up for girls in the State of Minnesota, and that is just shameful.”
Similar legislation faces an uncertain future in the state Senate, which is also held narrowly by the Democratic‑Farmer‑Labor Party. There, State Sen. Carla Nelson's bill, R-Rochester, has been referred to the Senate Education Policy Committee but has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.
Meanwhile, the federal lawsuit continues to move through the courts.
