Supreme judges rule male athlete can compete in women’s powerlifting division in Minnesota

In a setback for women’s rights, the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously ruled this week that USA Powerlifting discriminated against a biological male who identifies as female and sought to compete in the women’s division.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed in 2021 by Minneapolis-based transgender athlete JayCee Cooper, who alleged that the Anchorage-headquartered USA Powerlifting violated Minnesota’s Human Rights Act when it rejected his 2018 application to compete as a woman.

In its unanimous decision, the state’s seven Democrat-appointed justices agreed that the organization’s policy was “discriminatory on its face.”

Cooper, born male and formerly known as Joel, competed as a male athlete until around 2015, including on the US Junior National curling team. He later began identifying as female and entered women’s sports such as roller derby and powerlifting.

USA Powerlifting President Larry Maile, speaking to the Daily Caller in 2019, said at the time that defending the biological distinction between men and women in sport was essential to preserving fair competition.

A lower court initially ruled in Cooper’s favor in 2023, ordering the nonprofit organization to “cease its unfair discriminatory practice.” The group was ordered by the court to leave Minnesota because of its policy to not allow men to compete in the women’s division.

USA Powerlifting appealed, and the state Court of Appeals sent the case back, saying factual questions remained about whether the group’s exclusion of Cooper was based on gender identity or legitimate competitive fairness. Cooper then appealed again to the state’s highest court.

The Supreme Court sided with Cooper on the discrimination claim but sent the case back to trial court to consider USA Powerlifting’s defense. The organization argues that maintaining fairness for women’s competition is a “legitimate business reason” for separating divisions based on biological sex.

Gender Justice, a Minneapolis-based advocacy group representing Cooper, called the ruling a “historic victory” for transgender rights and equal access to public spaces.

Republican Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth called the ruling “another setback in the fight to protect girls sports,” and pledged to introduce legislation to strengthen state-level protections for women’s athletics.

The ruling comes as the Trump administration has made safeguarding women’s sports a national priority. In February, President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring federal funds from going to organizations that permit men to compete in women’s divisions.

USA Powerlifting, founded in 1981 and operating as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, holds more than 400 events annually across the country and bills itself as America’s leading drug-tested powerlifting organization.

On its website, the group maintains that “fairness in competition” is a cornerstone of its mission. It argues that biological males, even after hormone suppression, retain advantages such as higher muscle density, bone structure, and connective tissue strength, advantages that are particularly significant in a strength-based sport.

A second phase of the case, to determine potential damages, is scheduled for trial next May.