BEMIDJI — Bemidji joined other Northern Minnesota school districts Monday, Oct. 19, in sending letters to the Minnesota State High School League, urging a review of its policy on how trans students may compete in athletics.
Since 2014, the League has allowed students to compete in sports based on their gender identity. The letters circulating Minnesota school board meetings support allowing a proposed amendment to the MSHSL's bylaws to move forward.
Groups like Make it Fair MN are advocating for an amendment that would restrict athletes to compete on teams that match their biological sex assigned at birth.
Bemidji School Board member Jack Aakhus introduced the letter. He said it is more about being involved in the process than supporting any outcome.
“We recognize that this is an important and complex issue and that member schools and communities may hold different perspectives,” Aakhus said, quoting from the letter. “Those differences make broad participation in the process even more important.”
The MSHSL’s bylaw amendment process requires five member schools to send a letter to prompt it. That mark had already been met by the time Bemidji approved its letter on a 4-1 vote with one abstention.
The letter acknowledges that, and said, "Bemidji Area Schools supports allow that established process to move forward."
The abstainer, Jenny Frenzel, said she also serves on an MSHSL board. She cautioned the issue is dead on arrival.
“The Minnesota State High School League can't change state statute. The state statute here is the Human Rights Act,” she said. “We can't change that. No letter is going to change that.”
Gender identity is a protected class, according to the Minnesota Human Rights Act.
Michael Meehlhause, a cross-country coach and charter high school teacher, told the Board participation in sports should be open to all students.
“This is an unfounded fear and a scare tactic at the expense of a minority of students who are at higher risk for bullying and self-harm,” he said. “This marginalizes them further, which in turn increases isolation and depression.”
Brainerd’s school board unanimously approved a similar letter at its Sept. 21 meeting.
“My concern about biological boys competing on girls' teams is not about disrespecting any student. It's about recognizing that biological differences in strength, speed, endurance and physical development matter in competitive athletics,” said Brainerd School Board member Randy Heidmann.
“My hope is that other surrounding school districts and those around the state follow our lead in Brainerd.”
Heidmann is credited as the author of the letter circulating in other school board meetings.
During a contentious and crowded meeting Sept. 28 in Detroit Lakes, the school board approved sending the letter on a 4-2 vote.
There, School Board member Sanford “Sandy” Nelson cited a recent Supreme Court case that determined biology-based eligibility is not discrimination.
“Member schools are in imminent jeopardy of losing federal funding after the MSHSL year of defiance and legal battle for not adopting the Title IX-compliant, biology-based definition of sports eligibility,” Nelson said.
The issue of trans students in sports has been a frequent talking point for the Trump administration. It has challenged changes to the 1972 educational amendments known as Title IX made during the last administration.
The U.S. Department of Education has repeatedly attempted to rescind the Title IX framework that includes LGBTQ+ protections implemented during the Biden Administration, moves that have frequently been challenged in court.
In the Department of Education’s Sept. 29 rule change announcement, it described the Biden-era rules as pushing “schools across the country to illegally allow males to intrude into women’s sports and intimate facilities, and it investigated school staff for using incorrect pronouns or failing to ask students to declare a preferred gender.”
The MSHSL discussed its policy at length at its October meeting, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. More discussion is expected at the November meeting.
If the proposed amendment advances, it would move through the wide-reaching representative assembly process before a possible final vote in May.
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