ST. PAUL — Hundreds turned out to the Minnesota Capitol Monday, March 3, both in support and in opposition to a bill to ban transgender women from female K-12 sports teams.

The Minnesota House on Monday evening voted down HF12 , which would bar transgender girls and women from competing in female K-12 sports. The 67 Republican members and 66 DFL members of the chamber voted along party lines, with the bill falling one vote short of passage, but being laid over for potential consideration in the future.

HF12 chief author Rep. Peggy Scott, R-Andover, said the bill was introduced in an effort to maintain fairness in women’s sports and protect female athletes from transgender women.

“We know that males have a physical advantage. It’s a matter of fairness and safety,” she said.

Scott said any dispute about a student-athlete’s gender would be settled using the annual student sports physical to confirm gender based on the student’s physical anatomy, testosterone levels and chromosomes.

The bill defines a woman “as biologically determined by genetics and defined with respect to an individual’s reproductive system.”

As the bill awaited a vote on the House floor Monday, supporters and opponents held rallies and press conferences Monday both for and against the bill.

Supporters rallied outside of the Minnesota Capitol at 11 a.m., and Republicans held a 1 p.m. roundtable discussion in support of the bill off of Capitol grounds.

The Minnesota Queer Legislators Caucus held a press conference at noon alongside DFL House representatives in opposition to the bill. Opponents of the bill rallied outside the House chambers at 4 p.m.

The Republican rally featured three former athletes speaking in favor of the bill — conservative activist and former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, as well as former NFL Vikings safety Jack Brewer and tight end Ben Utecht.

Gaines attacked Democratic lawmakers over their support of the bill and said women’s sports should not allow “biological males” to play.

“You have a governor, you have an attorney general, you have elected officials, essentially an entire political party at least in terms of elected representation, who are willing to send the message and do everything in their power to say that ‘Look, we will put all Minnesotans at risk because we believe boys deserve to trample on girls,’ ” she said.

In their press conference about the bill, DFL lawmakers accused Republicans of targeting transgender youth for political reasons rather than out of concern for equality in women’s sports.

“There are lots of people in sports who have biological advantages,” said Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul. “They very rarely, if ever, have anything to do with their chromosomes, right? We see the unfair advantages, as in athletes all the time. Across sports, there are superstars, and that’s not because their chromosomes are one way or another."

Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth, said they believe the bill is a move against inclusivity within Minnesota.

“HF12, which is not a bill about fairness in sports, but is, in fact, a bill to bully trans girls and nonbinary kids and to eradicate us from public life. It is not our kids who are our problem,” they said.

Sen. Carla Nelson, R-Rochester, who is carrying the bill in the Senate, pushed back against claims that the bill is transphobic and said keeping transgender women out of women’s sports is a matter of fairness.

“These bills I’m supporting are not at all about discrimination. It’s just the opposite. It’s about giving girls and women an equal competitive playing field,” she said. “This is not anti-trans at all.”

Minnesota State High School League stuck in the middle

HF12’s introduction coincides with the Republican-led U.S. Department of Education placing the Minnesota State High School League under investigation for failing to adhere to an executive order prohibiting transgender students from playing in women’s sports.

League officials said they are concerned that banning transgender athletes could violate the state’s existing anti-discrimination protections in the Minnesota Constitution and the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison previously confirmed in his legal opinion that banning transgender athletes from women’s sports would violate state law.

“Based on the plain language of the statute, educational institutions and the Minnesota State High School League would violate the MHRA by prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in extracurricular activities consistent with their gender identity,” Ellison said in a news release Feb. 20.

Officials are using the 60 days allotted by the executive order to review their existing policies.

The Republican lawmakers behind the bill said it is meant to both restrict women’s sports to those assigned female at birth and give needed legal clarity to League officials.

It is unclear how many people would be affected by the bill, if written into law.

Recent estimates of the number of transgender students in Minnesota are limited. In a 2019 Minnesota student survey, 2.8% of ninth-grade students reported being transgender, genderqueer, genderfluid or unsure about their gender identity.

Efforts to identify the number of transgender student-athletes have found few examples. An American Civil Liberties Union spokesperson told Newsweek that Save Women’s Sports, an advocacy group in favor of banning transgender athletes in women’s sports, identified five K-12 transgender students competing in women’s sports teams nationally in 2023.

House Republicans are voting on this bill and several others like it while they still have a slight majority in the House, which is expected to end after the March 11 special election.

Leader Jamie Long, DFL-Minneapolis, and Speaker Emeritus Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, confirmed at Monday’s press conference that all 66 DFL members would be voting no on the floor this afternoon.

The House floor began discussion over HF12 at 3:30 p.m. Monday, and voted on it roughly 2 hours later.