The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the national ban on transgender women competing in female powerlifting is discrimination after a biological male, JayCee Cooper, sued USA Powerlifting in 2021 over being excluded.
“USA Powerlifting’s policy at the time of the decision was to categorically exclude transgender women from competing in the women’s division,” Chief Justice Natalie Hudson wrote for the court.
“Because USA Powerlifting’s facially discriminatory policy provides direct evidence of discriminatory motive, there is no genuine issue of material fact as to whether Cooper’s transgender status actually motivated USA Powerlifting’s decision to prohibit Cooper from competing. We therefore reverse the part of the court of appeals’ decision on this issue,” Hudson continued.
Cooper got a partial win in the suit, but the court also sent the case back to the lower courts to determine whether USA Powerlifting had a “legitimate business purpose” for its policy to exclude biological males from its women's events.
USA Powerlifting President Larry Maile said that the organization “created rules that uphold the principles of fair play” and didn't seek to exclude anyone.
The organization created a division specifically for those claiming to be transgender and nonbinary in 2021.
“Since science shows those who were born biologically male have a profound physical advantage over female-born athletes, our responsibility is to define legitimate categories to fairly place athletes within them,” Maile said.
The organization's attorneys said the decision on Wednesday is a partial win for both sides.
Ansis Viksnins said that USA Powerlifting will get to tell a jury “why excluding a transgender woman from competing in the women’s division was for legitimate reasons, for maintaining fairness in athletics.”
If transgender women, who are biologically male, are allowed to compete against biological females, the males would win every trophy and prize because males have greater muscle mass than females, even males who now identify as females and even those who have taken hormones or had transgender surgeries.
It is only common sense to separate these categories and have a separate division for those who are non-binary or transgender.
Then again, if the "T" part of LGBT had any common sense, they would know you can't just change your gender because you want to.
Transgender women will never have many of the struggles biological women have, including monthly menstruation, pregnancy risks, or anything related to the female reproductive system, which they don't have.
Just because you say you're something, doesn't make it true. And if women's sports is forced to lose all common sense, it will be destroyed beyond any repair. That's the bottom line people don't take into account, and they really should.
