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Leigh Finke represents St. Paul in the Minnesota House of Representatives. She was the first out trans woman elected to the state Legislature and serves as chair of the Minnesota Queer Legislators’ Caucus.
Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom made news after using his podcast to turn his back on the trans community and our ability to participate in sports. While Newsom chatted away with right-wing media figures on his podcast, Maine and Minnesota governors are taking a different, more human approach. Both Maine and Minnesota have policies of trans inclusion in athletics, and unlike Newsom, trans folks have watched and applauded Govs. Janet Mills and Tim Walz for leading with empathy and combating the harmful exclusionary tactics of President Donald Trump, his administration and his allies.
Maine is one of five states (California, Minnesota, Massachusetts and Washington, in addition to San Jose State University and the University of Pennsylvania) being investigated by the Trump administration for following state law and allowing trans kids to participate in youth sports in alignment with their gender identity.
In Minnesota, where I serve in the House of Representatives, we are facing the same threats, and responding in kind. On Feb. 5, when the Trump administration issued an executive order that would rescind federal funding to any school that allows transgender girls and women to participate in sports, under guidance by the Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, the Minnesota State High School League declared it would not comply. It would, instead, continue to allow trans girls access to youth sports in accordance with our state Human Rights Act, one of the strongest and most robust civil rights laws in the country.
Twice in the past two weeks, Minnesota House Republicans took advantage of a brief window of majority to push through a bill aiming to ban transgender girls from participating in sports — and it failed. The entire Democratic Farmer Labor Caucus voted no. And on the federal level, the U.S. Senate voted to reject a bill seeking to bar transgender girls from sports.
Transgender, nonbinary and two-spirit youth have been able to participate — and welcomed — in sports in Minnesota since 2015, when the high school league adopted its policy of inclusive youth athletics. Since that time, Minnesota has seen a record-breaking number of transgender youth participate in school sports. Over the same time period, Minnesota has also seen the highest increase of cisgender girls participating in youth sports. The evidence here is clear: inclusion is not a threat. In fact, the opposite is true: The more kids we allow to play, the more kids will play.
The same is true in Maine which has the highest rate of girls high school sports participation in the nation.
As the author of the Take Pride Act, a 2023 amendment to Minnesota’s Human Rights Act that codified nondiscrimination protections to include gender identity, I’m proud that Minnesota has clearly and decisively prioritized LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and I’m grateful to states like Maine and leaders like Mills for doing the same. Being transgender is real. Trans girls are girls, and we should let all girls participate with their peers.
For those who are concerned about the “fairness” of allowing trans girls to participate in sports, I implore you to look at the evidence. Several states have banned transgender youth — and specifically trans girls and women — from participating in sports without finding a single trans girl playing anywhere in the state. Think about that: This is a premature ban without a previous or existing conflict. Other states, like Minnesota, have welcomed trans athletes and seen no disruption to fair play at all.
Trans girls have the same dreams of belonging, excelling and thriving as their cisgender (non-transgender) peers. Participating in sports is a human right, not a privilege, and denying any girl the opportunity to play is a direct attack on all of our kids.
If Trump was really interested in protecting girls and women in sports, he would be doubling-down on requiring equal pay for men and women and enacting systems that protect girls and women from sexual predators in coaching and administrative roles.
We know that the federal attacks against transgender youth are about more than sports; This is a thinly veiled attempt from Trump to target transgender people in all of American public life, including baselessly firing trans service members which has been blocked by a federal court, ending access to transition health care for folks under 19, which has also been blocked by a federal court, and ending all federal protections and recognition of trans residents. The list goes on, and it’s not going to stop.
There is no justification for this eradication effort. We know that transgender people exist, have existed for centuries and will continue to be part of our communities and our culture long after this administration. We will not disappear despite Trump’s attempts to strip our legal rights and societal freedoms.
Resolve yourself to defend trans, nonbinary and two-spirit people in all of our efforts. Defend the rights of those few, brave trans girls who want to participate in sports. Like everyone who participates in youth sports, we must celebrate their wins, comfort their losses, inspire their effort, and see them for who they are: kids. Kids who want to play. By doing so, we will not only protect trans youth, but we will also reaffirm the values of inclusivity, respect, and equality that make states like Minnesota and Maine — and America as a whole — stronger.
