Banning Males From Women’s Bench Press Championship Was Unlawful, MN Supreme Ct. Rules
The decision is based on a since-modified state “public accommodations” law which provides legal protection based on sexual orientation, interpreted to include “transgender status.”
In 2018, Jaycee Cooper, a man who claims to be a woman, sought to register to compete in the Minnesota Women’s State Bench Press Championship. He was determined to be ineligible to compete because, according to the Complaint filed, USA Powerlifting had a policy that “[m]ale-to-female transgenders are not allowed to compete as females in our static strength sport as it is a direct competitive advantage.”
Cooper’s Complaint alleged discrimination under the sexual orientation provisions of Minnesota’s (since expanded) Human Rights statute which, at the time, was interpreted to prohibit “public accommodation” and “business” sexual orientation discrimination based on transgender status. A trial court partially granted summary judgement in Cooper’s favor, directing USA Powerlifting to revise its policy and to cease discriminating based on transgender status. Meaning, USA Powerlifting was ordered to accept men as competitors in the women’s division if they claimed to be “transgender.”
After an appeal to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, which determined there should be more factual findings and directed the case back to the trial court, the Minnesota Supreme Court determined that USA Powerlifting’s position was, on its face, discriminatory based on transgender status.
The Court noted that USA Powerlifting expressly said that it “do[es] not allow male to female transgender athletes at all,” that “trans women couldn’t compete in the Women’s division,” and that “we do not allow male to female transgender athletes at all. Full stop.” The Court did not accept USA Powerlifting’s argument that Cooper was excluded due to “male physiology” not because of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity.
While finding there was discrimination based on transgender status, the Minnesota Supreme Court determined that there was a genuine dispute of material facts as to whether there was a “legitimate business purpose” defense under one of the claims in the lawsuit, refusing to rule in Cooper’s favor on that claim.
Unfortunately, under a different section of Minnesota’s Human Rights Statute, the Court determined there was no similar defense or exemption and that USA Powerlifting did not identify any statutory defense or exemption applicable to Cooper’s claim for sexual orientation discrimination in public accommodations. As a result, the Court reinstated the portion of the district court’s decision that granted Cooper a favorable decision in his claim of public accommodation discrimination.
In reaching its decision, the Court repeatedly used female pronouns for Cooper, the male litigant.
The case was brought by Gender Justice, which is, according to Minnesota House Representative Harry Niska, a “nonprofit left-wing law firm closely allied with the Walz administration & Minnesota Democrats.” Representative Niska notes that Minnesota’s House Republicans unsuccessfully attempted to fix the State’s “public accommodation” statute in order to avoid such outcomes.
Unless we fix the statute, MN’s “public accommodation” discrimination statute now essentially bans girls sports. House Republicans saw this coming, and tried to fix it with HF 12 & HF 1233. Democrats blocked them for now, but they were laid on the table ready for swift passage.
— Rep. Harry Niska (@HarryNiska) October 22, 2025
Among other requested relief, the Complaint sought a civil penalty to the State, compensatory damages in an amount greater than $50,000, treble damages, punitive damages, attorney’s fees and a permanent injunction.
Amanda Stulman is a Senior Researcher and Attorney at the Legal Insurrection Foundation
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Comments
Absolute rubbish decision.
Apparently Freedom of Association is dead.
Apparently biology is dead
Freedom of association died with the 1964 civil rights act.
Absurdity
The court was just being honest about what the relevant statute written by Minnesota’s legislature required of the plaintiffs. The rubbish is the fault of those authors not of the court.
Common sense interpretation should apply here.
Nope. As much as that would be a great a should What shall apply is the statute as written, especially if there is not wiggle room. For example a rule making authority deciding on its own that sexual orientation applies to gender status. Then the court could go to the original intent of the statute and other legislative history. But in this instant it is the law as written which lead to the decision. Remember judges aren’t suppose to legislate from the bench. Even when dealing with bad laws.
Wrong. The plaintiff’s claim is based on a statutory sexual orientation claim. That’s transparently unavailing as a cause of action, and should have been deemed as such, by the court, because the plaintiff’s sexual orientation wasn’t at issue, nor was the weightlifting association’s treatment of him as a man, grounded in some construction of sexual orientation.
The court capriciously judged that the statute’s explicit references to sexual orientation encompass “gender identity.” That’s not a legitimate exercise in judicial statutory construction, but, rather, an obnoxious exercise in legislating from the bench, to achieve a desired legal outcome that the statute’s plain language doesn’t allow.
From the ruling,
“Both parties agree that the Legislature has spoken clearly and that the MHRA prohibits discrimination based upon ransgender status.2 At the time relevant to this lawsuit, the MHRA did so under its prohibitions on discrimination on the basis of “sexual orientation,”
ZaF ed legislation
Aargh: A Dem controlled legislature
Yep. What I find interesting is that USA Power Lifting could have raised another defense based on Minnesota statute (if I am ready the court’s opinion correctly” but because it was not raised at any point before the case came before them state supreme court did not consider it in their ruling. From the ruling,
“And USA Powerlifting makes no argument that the exemption in Minn. Stat.§ 363A.24, subd. 2, related to sex discrimination, also extends to sexual orientation discrimination.13
13 Because neither party has challenged the district court’s rulings as to the scope and applicability of the statutory exemption in Minn. Stat. § 363A.24, we decline to do so here.
See Pfeil v. St. Matthews Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Unaltered Augsburg Confession of Worthington, 877 N.W.2d 528, 535 (Minn. 2016) (declining to address an issue that was not briefed or argued). For the same reasons, we likewise decline to pass”
I don’t know what it would have meant if that exemption had been raised at any point prior to the case coming before the state supreme court. Well it’s too late to find out now.
@JReal. There may be MNcase law on that defense. It is hard to say that allowable discrimination between men and women would also permit discrimination between straight and gay men.
JReal’s comment is correct – The language of the Minnesota statute effectively requires that a male claiming to be a female be allowed to compete in womens sports.
Its the statute that is f’d up. The second problem is Minnesota politics is extremely far left which means extremely woke legislation gets enacted in MN. (its minneapolis and St paul that is extremely woke, the rest of the state is normal)
Are biological women permitted to compete in Men’s pissing contest?
Born another decade later the very effeminate Tampon would be a tranny
He is a tranny. He just doesn’t dress the part publicly.
His wife holds the whip when they’re alone too.
He should remember his safe word only works at home.
And who’s to say that he won’t go tranny now?
Once enough cheaters show up there will be no biological women on the podiums.
Maybe if the name category was changed to Front Hole, Chest Feeder, Uterus Carrier, or some other liberal construct to refer to females, perhaps that would allow women a place to compete.
Name the categories after the chromosomes; either XX or XY, with no other categories.
Subotai Bahadur
There should be a law that requires a genetic test for every competitor to determine if they compete on women’s or men’s teams.
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/12/pair-transgender-women-won-first-73285599.jpg?resize=559,600&quality=75&strip=all
Good God! There’s no need to scrutinize why males are inherently stronger than women, and there’s no need to get into the ignorant argument “What is a woman.” The fact is that the plaintiff is a cross-dressing man. Even surgically or chemically assisted dress up doesn’t change the fact he’s a male. So why can’t he participate in the women’s division? Easy! He’s only a woman in his own twisted mind. The only people that can’t figure this out are political hacks and judges. But perhaps that last sentence is redundant.
None of those facts really mattered, unfortunately. What mattered was the language of the statute that didn’t take into account such pesky issues such as biology, physiology, or even (perhaps most of all) common sense. Alice in Wonderland would feel a strong vibe of deja vu should she ever find herself in the chambers of Minnesota’s capital.
“Alice in Wonderland would feel a strong vibe of deja vu should she ever find herself in the chambers of Minnesota’s capital.”
If she found herself there, the name would have to be changed to Alice in the Pigsty.
Wilbur wants to know why you hate him. He knows he is a boy pig!
So following your logic, the MN legislature can now declare since a tranny is a woman he can no longer be charged with the crime of rape, so all our daughters are in jeopardy? Interesting concept, but I would still shoot him dead rather than obey a patently stupid law.
Simple solution. Have men compete in the women’s category and show that the court ruling has turned women’s sports into men’s sports 2.0 with the result there is no longer any real women’s sport.
Or will the trannies scream and sue because men are competing in their sport and they don’t like being beaten, only themselves having the right to beat women?
Another solution.
Get president Trump to voice his opinion that he wants trangender men/women to compete in sports any ole way they want.
I’ll give 2:1 odds the dems change their tune and DEMAND women’s sports be saved from men and that evil DJT is, once again, wrong and must be stopped.
Someone notify a federal judge and get an injunction against the awful dictator before we lose our democracy!!
I agree. The easy solution is “there is no men’s bench press or women’s bench press, there is bench press…the strongest lifter wins”.
Same with all sports. No gender categories, if you want to enter, feel free, the best athletes will win.
The end result is going to be the same either way. Men dominating sports that require strength, speed and endurance…they just won’t have to wear dresses and call themselves “she/her” to do it.
Yes, but the winners will be entirely different men.
The same dumb broads that prance around in “Handmaid” costumes at Trump rallies have no problem diminishing and discriminating against biological women… as long as they can obtain abortions on demand. The left is disgusting.
So TDS become Tranny Derangement Syndrome.
It’s an idiot decision but not surprising considering it’s Minnesota.
Sounds like someone in the fedguv should issue a general notice that any organization that “wins” under this Minnesota law “loses” all federal benefits.
No one should be surprised by this. This is a ruling from a Democrat controlled State (top to bottom) so of course this was always going to be the end result.
and this is alll leading up to “women” being equal to men in power
thats the goal ( or one of them)
you wont be able to determine if a person was born male or female ( laws will prevent that)
and then the leftists will say look…women can lift enough to qualify to be pd or fd or military
and they will continue ( hegseth or not) to lower the standards to meet their agenda
what an *exciting* world we now live in
kentaji is brilliant !!!!!
Have you been living in a cave?
Women are already allowed to be PD, FD, and military and the standards have already been lowered to accommodate biological women? How would trans fake women lower standards further?
The standards have been lowered already but that lowering at least acknowledges there are physiological differences which make lowering standards necessary to achieve “equality or equity or world peace.” Facts were used to come up with an acceptable lie. Women are not physically equal to men but if we change the requirements we can make them equal to men.
How would trans pseudo wimmin lower standard further? By not even allowing any facts at all to come into determining standards. Now for a trans “not really a woman” gender meeting physical requirements is not going to be a problem. But other standards based on physiological reality, such as women’s private spaces, simply go out the window because the trans movement believes sex is subjective and determined by what they demand.
Reality itself becomes discrimination. That is gonna mean not a lowering but a complete rejection of standards.
the savior of this??
IRONICALLY it will be the muslims gaining power
america is doomed
Well, as I understand it, Islam already has a foothold in the Twin Cities.
I guess this is the first step to ensuring that women have no rights to compete, to the point where women are seen and not heard, to not seen at all.
Maybe some good can come out of this. They can pass legislation that requires all trans women to wear burkas.
And by thus doing us all a favor.
Can we amend that to ball gags?
Or a Muslim legislature could pass a law requiring all trannies to be thrown off a 30 story high rise, and according to JRaeL, that would be the law so tough luck to anyone objecting to the killing on moral grounds—because judges would have “no choice” but to follow the law.
What astonishes me is that normal people can’t just look at everyday crowds of people and not see the obvious differences between the sexes! Hello! Do you not see that most men are bigger and have much larger upper bodies than women? In the future, this will be looked on in disbelief as the flat Earthers were once!
normal people can, libtards cannot
Unfortunately your choice of analogy is distressing.
1910s-1940s: <100 people estimated to take flat earth theory seriously.
1950s: 100-500 (International Flat Earth Society founded)
1960s: 500-1,000
1970s: 1,000-2,000 (mostly due to growth of Canadian affiliate)
1980s: 2,000-3,500
1990s: 500-2,000 (fire destroys Society's records)
2000s: 1,000-5,000 (forums and early social media)
2010s: 100,000-500,000 Society members (YouTube, Twitter)
with 10M-20M non-members "open to the idea" in the USA
2020s: 500,000-1M Society members (more social media)
with 20M-50M non-members "open to the idea" in the USA
Can't tell Barney from Betty? Sail on! sail on! and on!'
It’s USA Powerlifting, NOT Minnesota Powerlifting .
Simple solution. No Minnesota nutbags are permitted to compete if they have a stem.
Don’t nutbags and stems usually go together?
That was my solution to men in womens prisons also. No men’s prison or women’s prison, instead you have penis prison and vagina prison. The whole problem of men claiming to be women raping actual women in prison would go away. If you have not cut it off you go in penis prison, no exceptions.
The eunuchs would still assault the women.
In reaching its decision, the Court repeatedly used female pronouns for Cooper, the male litigant.
The sex/gender of the individual was the issue in question– if the court uses female referents it appears that the issue has been decided before any evidence has been given.
This is clear judicial predjudice.
I wonder what the first clue was. 😏
What I honestly do not get is why gender status was included in the definition of discrimination based on sexual orientation under the statute. Haven’t we been told that sexual orientation is cemented the moment one leaves the womb, sometimes even before? Haven’t we been told that gender is changeable the moment one leaves the womb? To me those two seem to be in conflict. It makes no sense for another reason,
A person’s sexual orientation can’t be determined by objective scientific and medical and physical criteria. You do have pretty much go on their say-so. However gender (biological sex) can be measured against scientific, medical, and physical criteria. It is not something that logically should be left to a person’s say so. But that is exactly what Minnesota did. If John says he is Joanne then Joanne he is.
Perhaps things will turn out alright. I suppose it is possible that the delusion is deep enough that “she” will get terrible menstrual cramps on the day of the actual competition and be forced to take a medical forfeit. Sad, but think of the relief “she” will have that at least “her” period isn’t late.
“However gender (biological sex) can be measured against scientific, medical, and physical criteria.”
It’s relatively simple.
You just ask them to wash their hands.
Male sex or masculine gender?
Gender refers to sex-correlated attributes (e.g. sexual orientation). Trans indicates a state or process of divergence. Both homosexuals and simulants are in the transgender spectrum. A male in feminine clothing is transsocial, or a misogynist.
Pedophilia is also a sexual orientation, but not politically congruent (“=”), not yet. #NoJudgement #NoLabels #LoveWins
Planned parenthood or human rites the wicked solution is effectively a sexual orientation. All’s fair in lust and abortion.
Accepting the Left’s axiom that “sex and gender are distinct” is part of the reason society is in this ridiculous situation in the first place.
Axioms are by definition assumptions that cannot be proven, only accepted or rejected.
When we cede language to these idiots, it only creates problems.
Gender: masculine and feminine, refers to sex-correlated attributes (e.g. sexual orientation). This is not axiomatic, but a given quality, quantity of Nature. However, those attributes can be simulated, and there are states of divergence (e.g. homosexuality).
They included males in competition by demonstrating the ambiguity of testosterone testing.
They equated couples and couplets (i.e. transgender unions) through the principle of political congruence (“=”).
They denied life deemed unworthy of life with social distancing through the use of fetus, a technical term-of-art used by technicians, abortionists, and empathetic advocates.
They normalized racism, sexism, and other class-disordered ideologies under the Diversity umbrella.
Then there are the Green deals, environmental blights and hazards, with range restricted, intermittent energy conversion.
Forewarned is forearmed.
The problem is discerning sex. The problem is specifying why a favorable juxtaposition of the sexes is material to social function. They tried to use testosterone as an indicator and were shut down. With political congruence (“=”) and nondiscrimination for sexual orientation under Democratic law, the entry bar is low and the field is Diverse and inclusive. Can they abort the fetus, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon pollutants, and have her, too? Yes, they can, maybe, baby.
With couplets conceiving through sperm deposits and harvesting babies on womb farms, the social function of the sexes has been deprecated.
I hope Jaycee remembers that he registered for Selective Service when he turned 18…..
What I find interesting about this case is that USAPL maintained that there was no sexual orientation discrimination because USAPL groups competition by age, weight, and sex. The grouping is motivated to ensure a fair competition.
The Minnesota Supreme Court was having none of that. To them USAPL’s policies were facially discriminatory regardless of the motivation.
I would recommend that USAPL move all sanctioned competition out of Minnesota until the Feds bring in some sanity.
USAWL issued a statement, it does not contain the most obvious statement that they will no longer hold events in Minnesota.
https://www.usapowerlifting.com/usa-powerlifting-issues-statement-on-partial-victory-in-mn-supreme-court-ruling-re-athletes-born-with-male-physiology/
The fact that in the U.S. we are actually litigating the issue of whether it’s appropriate, morally upright and culturally acceptable to allow misogynistic, malignantly narcissistic, self-serving, self-promoting and attention-seeking male trannies to undermine, subvert and invade girls’ and women’s sports and private spaces, demonstrates how pervasively the vile, stupid and evil Dhimmi-crats’ cultural and moral rot has spread throughout all facets and spheres of American society.
The lawsuit is not about whether it’s appropriate, morally upright and culturally acceptable. No court can rule on those things. It’s only about whether Minnesota law can force people to do it, despite it being inappropriate, morally corrupt, and culturally unacceptable. Apparently it can. The only answer is to stop doing business in Minnesota.
It’s Minnesota. Who would’ve thought something like that would be supported statewide here? /sarc
Simple solution, from this point on, in order to be in ANY woman or girls sport, take a DNA test to prove you are what you say you are. The real ones will have no problem with this, if you refuse the test, auto disqualification, if the test says you are not a girl or a woman, sorry about your luck. There is no such thing as a ‘trans woman’.
That’s way too much work to beat back the morons among us. The simply solution is to simply recognize there is no such thing as “trans” because nothing actually transitions to something it’s not. “Trans” simply is a spectrum of dress-up ranging from only clothing to surgically/chemically assisted dress-up. Accordingly, there is no “right” to use the force of law to make others participate in the trannies’ mental delusions.
Simple. If I identify as a neurosurgeon then I demand to be treated as one, allowed access to the OR, and paid accordingly. Otherwise I am being discriminated against on the basis of my educational status, which isn’t fair to those of us who come from less privileged backgrounds.
This is beyond frustrating. Especially since I’ve been off-line for a couple days and missed the comment section.
Nearly every single commenter, notwithstanding being on the “correct side” has got most of it wrong. This is exactly what is facilitating the continuing confusion of judges, and bad advocacy of lawyers.
PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE “GENDERS” !
“Gender” is not a synonym for “sex”. Sex is a reproductive role.
“Gender” refers to the artificial or stereotypical categorization of certain words, ideas, abilities, and other things as having traits like or being associated with a “sex” — “feminine” (associated with the female sex), “masculine” (associated with the male sex), or “neuter” (neutral, associated with neither sex).
“Sex” refers to the biological role that the individual plays in reproduction. There are only two of these roles, “male” and “female”. That is not altered because some people cannot reproduce because of age, injury, disease, or chromosomal or hormonal developmental anomaly.
There are two “sexes” — male and female.
There are three “genders” — masculine, feminine, and neuter — which are, depending upon the language, applied to various words and other things that are male-like, or female-like, or neither.
“Sexual orientation” refers to who or what someone is sexually attracted to. (Heterosexual, homosexual, pedophile, furry, etc. are “sexual orientations”.)
This is unrelated to the concepts of “sex” (meaning male or female — not the activity) or “gender”.
Remove any mention of “Woman/Women” and rename it the “Open Benchpress Championship”. Also remove any association with women’s sports entties, including collegiate/other educational associations.
Problem solved. Of course it eliminates an opportunity to engage in a sporting even, but ya gotta break eggs to make a quiche.
So, the decision was based on biological alchemy?
It would seem the only answer for the USA Power-lifting is to no longer certify the Minnesota competitions nationally. Cut’em off until they adhere to the National body rules,