Female softball player injured by male pitcher sues Minnesota to keep males out of her games

Males that identify as the opposite sex and compete in girls' sports have dominated swimming, track, pole vaulting, powerlifting, basketball and volleyball, to name a few, sometimes severely injuring females including Payton McNabb and unidentified players in a professional hockey tournament and college field hockey.

Deep-blue states that require coed competition in the name of transgender equity are now facing a two-front battle against the White House and in court, and pressure from all-time great athletes, even as they threaten school districts that segregate sports by sex. 

Female Athletes United sued Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, state Department of Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero, High School League Executive Director Erich Martens, Education Commissioner Willie Jett and three school districts on behalf of FAU members who have lost to a male in Minnesota girls' sports, including on public school teams.

It alleges Title IX violations for denying "effective accommodation to the interests and abilities of female athletes" and "equal treatment, benefits, and opportunities," seeking federal preemption of state law, injunctions against male competition against FAU's members and correction of athletic records of which male athletes deprived them.

Three play softball and two of those also play basketball, including Farmington High School student E.P. (The members are identified by initials.)

She had "never experienced pain" as bad from getting hit by a pitch as she did when a male pitcher hit her, the suit says. "The speed and strength of the pitch made the pain more intense than she has felt when getting hit other times," and she expects to face the male again at the state tournament this year and next year's season.

The girls' softball team with the male player "recently defeated last year’s defending state champion team," according to the suit. E.P. and M.S., another softball player, "are discouraged because they feel like they do not have an equal chance at victory at the state tournament before they even set foot on the field."

The third FAU member and softball player, E.G., plays for a team that lost regular season and sectionals games against the male's team, keeping it out of the state tournament. The male pitched "seven shutout innings" in the regular season game and will face E.G.'s team again in sections the next two years.

They object to playing "unsafe and unfair" games against a male, whose physiology in softball "translates to a significant advantage in pitching, hitting, and running" over females, who also "reasonably fear that they could be injured" by a male, according to the suit.

FAU was a victorious plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Biden administration's Title IX gender identity rewrite, with a federal court blocking the regulation as applied to its members at federally funded schools nationwide. Two of President Biden's nominees on federal appeals courts helped sink his regulation before the election.

It's not the first lawsuit concerning Minnesota's gender identity eligibility rules. The Minnesota Supreme Court is hearing a dispute between USA Powerlifting, which excludes lifters who have undergone "male puberty" from female competition, and a male athlete who transitioned after puberty but wants to compete in the women's division.

Washington's Quilcene School Board passed a resolution that limits male and female participation to teams and sports of their own sex, "as determined by their sex at birth," citing Title IX. It was approved three weeks ago but apparently noticed and reported on by the news media just a few days ago.

Legal counsel Curtis Leonard warned the board that "any action on this you take here … could result in litigation," the Port Townsend Leader reported. 

The resolution is at odds with directives from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, which voted down proposed amendments last month to limit girls' sports to "biological females" and create an "open division" regardless of sex."

It's in line with President Trump's executive orders elevating sex over gender identity, which prompted resistance from some Evergreen State school boards while others asked for Trump's help resisting the state.

The White House and federal agencies have launched civil rights investigations and cut off federal funding for states and school districts that buck their view of Title IX, though Maine got back Department of Agriculture funding after suing.

The Department of Education is investigating OSPI for enforcing the state's nondiscrimination law, which protects gender identity, prompting Superintendent Chris Reykdal to promise resistance "until Congress changes the law and/or federal courts invalidate Washington state laws."

The ACLU of Washington is saber-rattling against far-flung Quilcene on the Olympic Peninsula for its "harmful, likely unlawful policy," in a warning letter that also requests materials sent or received by board members regarding the policy, a public-records precursor to litigation.

The letter ignores the science of athletic performance differences between the sexes and argues that sex-based eligibility will worsen "alarming rates of bullying, family rejection, depression, and suicidality' for transgender students.

Its only cited evidence is a 2024 peer-reviewed study in Nature Human Behaviour by researchers for The Trevor Project, the LGBTQ youth advocacy group, which claimed "anti-transgender" state laws have increased suicide attempts. 

Science journalist Jesse Singal, who closely scrutinizes such research, mocked the journal for letting the advocates make an "indisputably false claim," that so-called "gender-affirming healthcare has well-established benefits," and back it up with "four irrelevant citations." A federally funded researcher hid her own study's contrary findings for nearly a decade.

Professional athletes are feeling more comfortable speaking against male domination of female sports, once relegated to older feminists, especially tennis great Martina Navratilova.

NFL quarterback and free agent Aaron Rodgers, once the face of the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets, denounced the "anti-woman" movement of males who identify as women taking hundreds of "gold medals" from women, in an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan. He didn't cite a source for his claim about stolen medals.

NBA legend and broadcaster Charles Barkley, who criticized the Kamala Harris presidential campaign for relying on celebrity endorsements rather than policy proposals on immigration and inflation, told OutKick this month that anyone who believes men can compete against women in sports is "stupid" and "I don’t even think that’s controversial."