The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that an athletic organization violated the state’s anti-discrimination law when it barred a transgender athlete from competing, culminating a six-year-long legal battle.
Minnesota Supreme Court’s Chief Justice Natalie E. Hudson affirmed that a sport organization’s policy barring trans women from competing is “facially discriminatory and constitutes direct evidence of discrimination based on sexual orientation under the [Minnesota Human Rights Act’s] prohibition against discrimination in business and places of public accommodation.”
The decision reversed a court of appeals ruling that had sowed doubt on whether the organization, USA Powerlifting, had made the decision to bar an athlete from competing based on her transgender identity. However, the court sent a portion of the case back to trial to revisit a “genuine dispute of material fact” as to whether USAPL’s push to “ensure competitive fairness in an athletic competition satisfies the legitimate business purpose defense.”
In 2018, JayCee Cooper, then 30 years old, joined USA Powerlifting, a leading powerlifting competition organization, with the hopes of competing in Minnesota state’s bench press and women’s championships the following year.
