Purpose of the Bill

The primary goal of this bill is to establish rules for how school athletic teams are designated based on the biological sex of students at birth. This involves categorizing sports teams and defining who may participate in them.

Main Provisions

• Athletic Team Categories: The bill requires that school-sponsored sports, whether interscholastic, intramural, or club teams, must be explicitly labeled according to the following categories based on the biological sex at birth:

  1. Male teams
  2. Female teams
  3. Coeducational (Coed) teams

• Participation Criteria: For teams designated as female, only students who were biologically female at birth are permitted to join. This suggests that transgender athletes who were not assigned female at birth cannot participate in female teams.

Significant Changes

• The bill amends Minnesota Statutes section 123B.49 by introducing a new subdivision that explicitly requires the categorization of athletic teams based on biological sex at birth. This represents a legislative move to explicitly define and regulate participation in sports to align with sex assigned at birth, potentially impacting transgender athletes.

Relevant Terms

biological sex, interscholastic sports, intramural, club athletics, male and female teams, coed teams, transgender athletes, sex-based classifications.