Rather than ban transgender athletes from women’s divisions, Minnesota has responded to new U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) guidelines by doing away with sex-based categories entirely—requiring biological women to compete alongside male and transgender male athletes.
The conservative’s slippery slope argument made for years, is now a reality for Minnesota athletes, who will no longer compete exclusively against their biological peers. The argument that the embrace of transgender males in women’s sports would ultimately lead to a breakdown in sex-based spaces has become the case for the Minnesota Fencing community whose women must now compete against all males, transgender females, and other females in one all-inclusive category.
The change follows new USOPC guidelines on sex-segregated spaces, which took effect Aug. 1. Those guidelines follow President Donald Trump’s earlier executive order, which aims to protect opportunity and fairness in women’s sports. Minnesota officials made clear it would not be embracing this view of men and women’s sports, opting to instead remove any sex-based distinction altogether.
The Minnesota Fencing division released a statement which reads, “The Minnesota Division would like to affirm our commitment to inclusion and acknowledge the harmful effects of the new USA Fencing policy as guided by the USOPC’s guidelines … The recent changes in the USA Fencing policy, in line with USOPC guidelines, has caused pain and confusion in the entire fencing community.”
House Majority Whip and Minnesota Congressman, Tom Emmer disapproves of the division’s decision calling it “shameless” in a post to X.
Musician, Fencer and trans rights proponent Matt Stache aimed his disapproval elsewhere, saying he’s giving up fencing in solidarity with Trans Athletes after USA Fencing’s new policy. (RELATED: Wisconsin Refuses Trump Admin’s Request To Clean Up Voter Rolls)
Transgender participation in women’s sports has been a consistent losing issue for the left and was a subject of discourse following the presidential election in 2024. Even left-leaning voices, like comedian Bill Maher, have warned that Democrats will lose every election if they keep on this path. (RELATED: Wisconsin State Bar Abandons Race-Based DEI in Legal Settlement)
