The U.S. Department of Education will be investigating the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) to determine its adherence to President Donald Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports.” The executive order aims to ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports, which is in violation of the Minnesota’s Equal Rights Act which banned discrimination based on gender identity since 1993.
Starting on Feb. 5, sports organizations have 60 days to comply with the executive order or their governmental funding will be cut. Because the MSHSL is a nonprofit organization, it is unclear what impact cutting funding will have on the institution. MSHSL previously stated that they are subject to “state anti-discrimination laws,” including the Equal Rights Act, and argued that the order violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. When Zephyrus reached out to the MSHSL for an interview, they declined to comment.
These state laws were recently challenged by a new bill debated in the Minnesota House, HF12. The bill—named the “Preserving Girls’ Sports Act”—seeks to reverse the transgender protections of the Equal Rights Act and would force the MSHSL to stop allowing transgender women to participate in women’s sports. However, on March 3, the bill was tabled, effectively killing it.
Minnesota House Rep. Alex Falconer anticipated this. “This bill is not going to pass the MN state house and it’s not going to see any light of day in the Senate,” he said. “We are wasting time—this is a disservice to the people of Minnesota on top of it being a very hateful and insulting piece of legislation.”
For Edina High School junior Theo Bowers, the bill and executive order seem to emphasize sexist standards based on unsubstantiated claims. Bowers, who began receiving testosterone shots in December of 2024, said that the gender-affirming care process can result in a transgender person adopting the traits of a cis-gender person, eliminating disparities in physical ability. “[The executive order] brings up a whole bunch of stereotypes about women, too,” he said. “[It’s] pushing on that stereotype that women are weaker and they need to be protected.”
Rep. Falconer shares similar concerns. “I kind of feel that an attack on children that identify as trans is an attack on the community in general,” he said. “And this community, the trans community, is constantly being attacked in the face of bigotry and exclusion. Trans youth in particular have a higher rate of dealing with mental illness and issues, and this just furthers the attack on them and makes things worse.”
Currently, EHS allows transgender students to choose whether they want to play on the girls’ or boys’ sports teams. Per a district statement, Edina Public Schools will “continue to act in compliance with MSHSL bylaws regarding the participation of transgender male athletes in female sports.” Should the MSHSL remove its protections for transgender youth, this may change.
Bowers stated that they saw the executive order and investigation as an extension of anti-transgender sentiments present in the federal government since Trump’s inauguration. “We’re being excluded from all these things that everyone else gets to participate in because they’re ‘normal,’” he said. “What’s normal?”
This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on March 27, 2025
