Minnesota state Rep. Leigh Finke (D) is a transgender state politician who has spoken openly about "gender-affirming care" for kids and even introduced a bill in 2023 to legislate access to surgeries and hormones for children.
Finke, who is part of the Democrat-affiliated Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, recently called sex-based categories in sports a form of discrimination. Following those comments, however, it took less than a day for the politician's ideas play out in real time in his own state.
'They're just kids who want to participate and enjoy the benefits of sports ...'
In a statement to OutKick, Finke defended the idea of boys playing in girls' sports, right down to declaring that males can be female.
"Trans girls are girls," Finke told the outlet. "They deserve the right to play sports and engage in physical wellness activities, just like every other child growing up in our beloved state. They aren't doing anything wrong; they're just kids who want to participate and enjoy the benefits of sports, just like their peers."
OutKick reported that Finke dismissed concerns about males dominating in female sports and described policies that establish sex-based categories in athletics as "discriminatory."
"[These policies] also undermine the very purpose of youth sports, which is to encourage participation and personal growth for all children," Finke claimed.
Finke's comments were published early on Wednesday morning, and it took less than 12 hours for the state representative's ideology to prove harmful for young female athletes.
RELATED: Boy who had birth certificate changed to 'female' now dominating girls' softball
OutKick's Amber Harding posted video Wednesday evening from the Minnesota state softball semifinals, where a 17-year-old male pitcher was dominating female opponents.
Charlie Rothenberger, who now goes by "Marissa," pitched a complete game and added two doubles to send Champlin Park High School to the state finals.
As Blaze News reported in May, Rothenberger is six feet tall and had his birth certificate altered just after he turned 9 years old through his mother's petition.
The child's sex was changed to "female" and his name changed from "Charlie Dean" to "Marissa."
On Friday, Harding reported from the state finals, where Rothenberger dominated even more easily. In a 6-0 victory over Bloomington Jefferson, Rothenberger pitched a complete-game shutout and gave up only three hits to win the Minnesota state championship.
Rothernberger was named to the All-Tournament Team.
RELATED: 'Get a life': Transgender athlete mocks hecklers after crushing teen girls to win state championship
Viewers were notably upset with the results; "Title IX has been overturned in Minnesota. Gender ideology supersedes women's rights," an X user, purporting to be from Minnesota, wrote.
"That boy is really good at girls' softball," a female X user said.
A woman added, "A bunch of girls that have been trained to submit to the feelings of males."
The grim reality of Rothenberg's participation flies in the face of Finke's comments to OutKick. The state representative vastly oversimplified the effects of male participation in female sports, falling back on local laws as his justification.
"These young trans athletes are playing sports they love, surrounded by their loved ones, friends, and teammates who support them, in accordance with local law," Finke said in the statement to OutKick. "They deserve support and celebration, like all of our young people."
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A transgender athlete ignored biological reality and mocked his hecklers after his second straight win at a state championship in girls' track and field.
Veronica Garcia, a boy, won the Class 2A 400-meter dash at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma, Washington, on Saturday, beating out female competitors as cheers and jeers rained down.
'I know I'm gonna push myself to keep going, but I don't want a man pushing me to have to go.'
As Blaze News previously reported, Garcia — a 17-year-old senior from East Valley High School — used to go by the names Davina Brown and Donovan Brown.
Garcia received a fair amount of taunting in 2024, but the backlash against the male's participation in female athletics has been much more prominent this year.
While heckling and protesting from other participants were apparent, it was the runner's response to critics that has been making headlines.
According to the Spokesman-Review, two men stared at Garcia as he took his mark for the race and then yelled, "May the best girl win," in his direction.
Garcia addressed the remarks after his victory, the paper said: "I'm just gonna say it's a ... shame they don't have anything else better to do."
The runner added, "I hope they get a life, but oh well, it just shows who they are as people," according to Spokesman-Review.
As Garcia took the podium and was announced as the state champion, two competitors were noticeably absent: Lauren Matthew, who placed second, along with her teammate Quincy Andrews, who placed fifth, the paper said.
The girls, both from West Valley High School, refused to stand on the podium — and spoke out against Garcia afterward: "I shouldn't have to push myself to the point of where I'm about to, like, die in order to win," Matthew told the Spokesman-Review. "I know I'm gonna push myself to keep going, but I don't want a man pushing me to have to go."
Andrews talked up her teammate and called her the "best woman" who should be the rightful state champion, the paper said: "She should have won state last year, and that’s taken away from her, which isn’t fair."
Former NCAA athlete and women's sports activist Riley Gaines shared a photo of Matthew on her X page and declared her the "real state champ."
Garcia gave Matthew props, saying she forced him to perform better, the Spokesman-Review said: "I honestly couldn't do this without competition; Miss Matthew, I think she really pushed me."
A handful of protesters outside the venue held signs that read "Save women's sports!" the paper said — a sentiment that has exploded in recent months.
One of the voices responsible for the rise in women refusing to participate against transgender athletes is the CEO of XX-XY Athletics, former gymnast Jennifer Sey.
Sey told Blaze News that the conversation around whether males have an advantage over females in sports should be over.
"Activists continue calling for more research to better understand if men are stronger and faster than women," Sey told Blaze News. "We don't need more research. We don't need more categories to compete in. We just need to test for sex. And athletes just need to compete in the category to which they were born."
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A U.S. district court judge ruled that a young boy who allegedly identifies as a girl shall be allowed to play for the girls' tennis team at his school.
A Hanover County middle school in Virginia is the subject of U.S. District Court Judge M. Hannah Lauck's decision that a young boy was excluded from a team on the basis of sex.
Judge Lauck declared that the plaintiff "established that the [school] Board excluded her, on the basis of sex, from participating in an education program when it denied her application to try out for (and if selected, to participate on) her school's girls' tennis team."
The child, who is being labeled as Janie Doe, had the lawsuit filed on his behalf with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.
'This is child abuse & the parents belong in jail.'
The ACLU is alleging the school discriminated against the child by not allowing him to play on the team despite successfully trying out. This is in spite of the fact that Virginia law prohibits biological males from competing on girls' and women's athletics teams since the Save Women Sports Act was passed in 2021.
The judge added, among other claims, that the child would face "social isolation" and "stigma" if not allowed to play with girls, in part because it would become clear that he wasn't actually a girl:
"Because Janie Doe faces a litany of harms ranging from medical regression, social isolation and stigma, financial and logistical burdens, and the dignitary harms of either 'outing' her as transgender or communicating that transgender students are not welcomed or encouraged to participate in school athletics at all, Janie Doe has made more than a clear showing that the discrimination has harmed her," Lauck wrote, according to Fox News.
The judge was reportedly appointed by former President Barack Obama, per OutKick, and the injunction means the child can play on the girls' team as the lawsuit moves forward in court.
Women's sports activist Riley Gaines commented on the story, expressing shock while claiming the child has been on puberty blockers since the age of 7:
"These parents put their SEVEN yr old son on puberty blockers. They fraudulently changed his birth certificate to female. Now, an Obama-appointed judge has ruled that he can play tennis with the girls," Gaines wrote on X. "This is child abuse & the parents belong in jail."
The child has "identified as a girl since she was 7 years old," the Washington Post stated. Additionally, he was "diagnosed with gender dysphoria, has been placed on puberty blockers, and legally changed her name and birth certificate to reflect her sex as female," the outlet also reported.
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A female high school senior won her second straight state wrestling title, defeating multiple opponents on her way to the Maine championship.
Maddie Ripley, a 17-year-old from Oceanside High School in Rockland, Maine, beat three opponents en route to another state wrestling championship against male competitors.
The feat was even more impressive when considering that she won the inaugural women's title just days earlier at a different weight class. Ripley won the 107-pound girl's state championship, then, just days later, defeated males in their 113-pound division.
"I didn’t really hear too much that it was a fluke. Now that I’ve won a second, then it just proves that it wasn’t," Ripley said confidently, according to ABC News.
"Girls are working hard," Ripley continued. "Last year when I won I was like really excited. It was the first time I won. And then this year, I was still super excited."
Ripley's coach and stepfather said that more and more colleges are starting up female wrestling programs, and the sport is in a time of a lot of talented female athletes.
"I think girls' wrestling is just exploding right now," he said. "The more athletes we get, the better they’re going to do."
Ripley is not the only female wrestler to take on males in a time when male athletes are often invading female athletics.
An Arizona high school senior named Audrey Jimenez won the Division I state wrestling title against boys just days earlier.
"Why not?" Jimenez said about her decision to first wrestle boys. The 18-year-old actually needed special permission from the state athletic body to compete against males and capitalized on the decision.
In 2022, Bella Mir, daughter of UFC legend Frank Mir, was among a group of Nevada teenage girls who started competing in wrestling matches against males. Mir, along with Jenavi Alejandro and Juliana Alejandro, wrestled males, with Alejandro becoming the first girl to win a match against a boy at the state level in 2019.
Mir expressed sympathy for the boys and said they are in a lose-lose situation.
"I feel bad for the boys. If you win, you look bad because you beat up on a girl. But if you lose, it sucks because you got beat by a girl," she explained.
Mir is now a professional mixed martial arts fighter and was even signed to a representation deal with the UFC while in college for her name, image, and likeness.
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Does Chicago Bears safety Jonathan Owens support trans-identifying men destroying the safety and fairness of women’s sports? It’s a question worth asking given that his wife, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, is on a pro-tranny jihad to undermine the very athletic system that propelled her to fame. The entire controversy erupted this past weekend when Biles […]
Democrat Maine Gov. Janet Mills is attempting to thwart federal civil rights law to allow the grooming of children in schools.
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Rep. Colin Allred is making the claim in spite of the fact that he voted for legislation mandating boys be allowed in girls' sports and opposed a bill that would have prohibited it.
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The NCAA is ignorant of the discrimination that even one trans-identifying male athlete multiplies against women.
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