Trump's week in review: Gaza peace deal push, Quantico speech

3. Trump admin. finds Minn. violated Title IX by allowing boys in girls' sports, bathrooms

The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services’ Offices for Civil Rights released a joint statement Tuesday announcing that an investigation had found that the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League have violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which requires institutions that receive federal funding to provide equal opportunities to women and girls in education. 

The agencies cited the presence of trans-identified male athletes on the girls’ Alpine ski team, the girls’ Nordic skiing team, the girls’ lacrosse team, the girls’ track and field team, the girls’ volleyball team and the girls’ fastpitch softball team, as well as the dominance of a trans-identified male athlete from Champlin Park High School in a softball game as examples of the state’s violations of the federal civil rights law. 

The Trump administration also noted that guidance from the Minnesota Department of Education allows trans-identified students to enter opposite-sex bathrooms and locker rooms.

“The Trump Administration will not allow Minnesota or any other state to sacrifice the safety, fair treatment, and dignity of its female students to appease the false idols of radical gender ideology,” said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education.

“Once an education program or entity takes federal funds, Title IX compliance becomes mandatory,” he added. “And the federal government will hold Minnesota accountable until it recognizes that fact.”

Lamenting that “Minnesota permits male athletes to compete in sports designated for females, which denies females the equal opportunities under Title IX that they deserve in athletic competition,” Paula Stannard, director of the HHS' Office of Civil Rights, said the state has failed to "recognize the fundamental biological differences between males and females — differences that justify single-sex teams and are essential to ensuring fair and safe competition for girls and women.”