“Since science shows those who were born biologically male have a profound physical advantage over female-born athletes, our responsibility is to define legitimate categories to fairly place athletes within them,” said Larry Maile, President of USAPL.
On Tuesday, the Minnesota State Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a yearslong case involving a trans-identified male powerlifter who was barred from competing in the women's sporting category. JayCee Cooper filed a lawsuit against USA Powerlifting in 2021 after being denied from competing on the women's team three years prior. Cooper accused the organization of violating the Minnesota Human Rights Act in the complaint, which prohibits discrimination against individuals who "have a self-image or identity not traditionally associated with one's biological maleness or femaleness."
Last year, a district court determined that the organization had discriminated against Cooper. This decision led to a mandate that the federation "cease and desist from all unfair discriminatory practices" on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, Fox News reported. The organization filed an appeal against the lower court's decision. Cooper filed a cross-appeal, resulting in the case landing at the state's High Court. On Monday, the Minnesota Appeals Court ruled that the federation did not discriminate against Cooper.
The Minnesota State Supreme Court questioned USA Powerlifting's counsel, Ansis Viksnins, on Tuesday about whether Cooper's ban from women's competition was not "discriminatory." The lawyer explained that the category is not "based on gender identity."
The court related Cooper's case to a hypothetical and asked Viksnins to replace Cooper with Catholics, questioning whether Catholics would be better bowlers. The attorney shut down the comparison.
"There is no legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason why there could be separation based on religion or national origin or race, whereas there is a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for separating and treating transgender or women differently," Viksnins told the court. "The motive here was to separate biological males into a category where they are competing against other people who were born biologically male, that if I could point out my client separates competitors three ways by age, weight, and sex. They do not care about gender identity. They don't care about sexual orientation."
In 2021, the federation launched an "open" category to serve "all gender identities." Larry Maile, President of USAPL, told Fox 9: "Our goal at USAPL is to create rules and a framework that uphold the principles of fair play, not to exclude anyone. Since science shows those who were born biologically male have a profound physical advantage over female-born athletes, our responsibility is to define legitimate categories to fairly place athletes within them."
In 2019, Cooper won twice against a single challenger, Rebecca Richnofsky, in the women's raw 198+ open category. Cooper placed fourth out of four contestants in the open category at the 2019 USPA National Championships.
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