Minnesota ruling allows transgender women to compete in USA Powerlifting

The Ramsey County District Court has struck down policy that barred transgender women from competing in the nation's leading drug-tested powerlifting organization.

The decision, announced Feb. 27, comes more than four years after athlete JayCee Cooper was denied participation in USA Powerlifting's Minnesota state bench press championship. USAPL officials said that Cooper had a "direct competitive advantage" as a male-to-female transgender person.

However Judge Patrick Diamond said that decision, and the organization's policy barring such athletes, is discriminatory.

"USAPL's policy, on its face, discriminates on the basis of sex and sexual orientation. The policy says nothing about muscle mass, size, weight, or puberty," Diamond's ruling read. "The policy rests, not on individualized determinations, but on generalizations and stereotypes as to the characteristics that might or might not be possessed by members of a protected class."

USA Powerlifting must submit a revised policy that complies with the ruling by March 13. Calls and emails for comment from the organization were not immediately returned.

The court ruling reveals that emails between USAPL officials were rife with questions.

Cooper had submitted a petition to compete while taking spironolactone, a gender-affirming treatment that blocks androgen receptors and lowers the amount of testosterone the body creates. Committee members asked each other if the exemption could be made, and if male-to-female transgender people were allowed to compete at all.

That committee approved Cooper's request, but Diamond's order says they were overruled by the USAPL president who emailed committee members saying, "[w]e do not allow male to female transgender athletes at all. Full stop."

"I jumped through every hoop, cleared every hurdle to be able to compete with USA Powerlifting, but was met with a retroactive ban on trans athletes," Cooper said in a statement after the judge's order. "I am thrilled that this ruling recognizes our rights and our humanity and hopefully opens doors for transgender athletes everywhere to participate fully in sports."

Cooper also celebrated the victory in a social media post reading, "WE WON."

Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve backed the ruling in a Star Tribune commentary, where she compared Cooper's court victory to other women who overcame barriers to playing sports, and said the ruling will be remembered as a historic victory.

"I'm proud to live in a state that protects the rights of transgender people from discrimination," Reeves' commentary read. "From the youth sports level to the elite professional level, trans women, trans men and nonbinary athletes have a right to compete in the sports they love."

Diamond's decision came more than a week before Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order protecting gender-affirming health care in the state. A similar bill is traveling through the DFL-controlled Legislature.