Gov. Tim Walz, his attorney general, Keith Ellison, and the Minnesota State High School League have pretty much bet the farm on making Minnesota the marquee state in the country for celebrating, accommodating and embracing transgender rights, such as the right of a transgender female to compete on girls teams.

President Donald Trump, as he vowed to do during his campaign, signed an executive order Feb. 5 forbidding transgender females from playing on girls and women’s teams.

Minnesota insists that the order violates the state’s constitution and for now, at least,
Minnesota is ignoring Trump and proud of it.

Ellison, for example, believes Trump’s order constitutes harassment and bullying and, by gosh, we’re not going to stand for that in Minnesota.

This being Minnesota, the only thing that worries me about the inevitable lawsuits is the potential for fraud.

The wisdom of Solomon is required. There are males who wish to be females and we are to presume that it is then entirely natural for them to compete on the girls swimming, basketball or track and field teams. What isn’t natural is the biology.

Biological males are built differently. That this needs to be stated seems ridiculous, but that’s where we are. Probably has something to do with guys having to kill a mastodon back in the day while the gals gathered berries. Boys are bigger, taller, stronger, have wider shoulders, stronger hearts and more lung capacity, longer limbs and bigger feet and hands.

Let’s not write this in stone just because an old man outside yelling at clouds says so.

According to statistics used by the International Amateur Athletic Federation, the late Olympic, World and U.S. Champion Tori Bowie’s lifetime best 10.78 seconds in the 100-meter dash was beaten more than 15,000 times by boys and men in 2017. Bowie died due to complications from childbirth in 2023.

In 2017, Olympic, World and U.S. Champion sprinter Allyson Felix’s lifetime best of 49.26 seconds in the 400-meter race was beaten by men and boys around the world more than 15,000 times.

Sex determines win share. Sorry, it’s just a fact. Proponents of transgender inclusion in sports must know this, which presupposes something else must be at issue that has nothing to do with winning. Is winning itself – winning at anything – an affectation of patriarchy and therefore must be struck down? Students can easily develop a disdain for convention at their failed academies. Are proponents suggesting to females that winning a race or a swim meet is not important? Is merely showing up enough? By including everybody in the game, regardless of their biology at birth, athletics become a communal exercise hour.

Sounds great for touch football and gin and tonics on a wide lawn in the Hamptons. Don’t think it will work out too well at the Olympic pool.

Most importantly, why do only women have to pioneer this new world?

Compromises will have to be made, perhaps asterisks used, possibly division of competition by weight. The way forward must be found and compromises must be made or biological female athletic competition will not exist.

I don’t have a horse in this race and wish everybody the best. I come from the I-take-a-lawnchair-to-the-kid’s-softball-game-and-watch-them-pick-dandelions crowd. The six young girls in my camp are not a threat to get a Nike endorsement. One of them was asked last summer if she wanted to go to a Twins game.

“Depends where you park,” she said.

“Why?”

“I don’t want to walk too far.”

Joe Soucheray can be reached at jsoucheray@pioneerpress.com. Soucheray’s “Garage Logic” podcast can be heard at garagelogic.com or on YouTube.

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