Minnesota firm on trans athletes policy amid renewed federal funding threat – Twin Cities

Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office had “no substantive response” on Friday to a further demand by the administration of President Donald Trump for Minnesota to change its policies allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls’ school sports.

The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services said in a Sept. 30 news release that Minnesota and the statewide governing body for high school sports had 10 days to “voluntarily resolve” its transgender athletes’ policy or risk losing federal funding.

With that deadline now passed, Minnesota and the Minnesota State High School Leagues’ policies remain unchanged — despite federal threats of “imminent enforcement action” if the state didn’t resolve alleged violations of Title IX, federal law banning sex discrimination in education.

An ongoing federal government shutdown and a lawsuit from Ellison’s office challenging an earlier Trump executive order barring transgender athletes from girls’ sports may have bought the state more time.

Timeframe for response

In a Friday letter from Ellison’s office to the civil rights offices at the education and human services departments, Solicitor General Liz Kramer said it was not clear whether the 10-day deadline was definitive, as the resolution and the initial letter from education and human services civil rights offices did not include a timeframe for response.

“As you know, if the federal government intends to follow the law, it would need to follow an extensive, multi-step administrative process before any federal funding to Minnesota education programs or activities could ever be terminated,” she wrote.

“In addition, the federal government is currently shut down and I understand employees in both
Offices for Civil Rights are furloughed,” Kramer added later in the letter. “As a result, the Minnesota Department of Education will not provide any substantive response at this time.”

Press officials with the U.S. Department of Education couldn’t immediately be reached Friday as the federal government shutdown entered its 10th day.

The Minnesota Department of Education receives 10% of its annual funding from the federal government — around $1.4 billion in 2025. The September Title IX report is the latest federal challenge to Minnesota’s transgender athletes policy.

Executive order, Ellison lawsuit

Trump also issued an executive order on the issue earlier this year, and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened Minnesota officials with legal action if they did not comply. The U.S. Justice Department sued Maine and California over their policies allowing transgender athletes in girls’ sports.

Ellison in April brought a preemptive lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging two executive orders — one banning transgender athletes in women’s and girls’ sports and another aimed at removing recognition of transgender people in federal policy, saying they were are aimed at “bullying” transgender youth.

For now, the state of Minnesota’s continued reply to the Trump administration’s threats to cut off education funding remains centered on the lawsuit.

The Minnesota State High School League didn’t respond to requests for comment on the Title IX report. The group has allowed students to decide whether to participate in boys or girls sports based on their gender identity since 2014.

Local pressure

Forest Lake school board members on Oct. 2 voted 4-3 to send a letter to statewide leaders asking them to comply with the order after Trump administration officials published their Title IX report. Board President Curt Rebelein said the state needed to act due to the risk to federal funding.

In response to the Forest Lake letter and other school board members pressuring the state to comply, Ellison reiterated the stance he expressed in an opinion he issued on Trump executive orders on transgender athletes earlier this year: That they likely would violate the state Human Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the state Constitution, which includes protections for different sexual orientations and gender identities.