Fresh off a historic loss in 2024 and with the midterms only a year away, Democrats are doubling down on one of their most controversial policies: biological boys competing in girls’ sports. Since returning to office in January, President Donald Trump has been pressing states to comply with restored Title IX protections ensuring fairness in girls’ sports, but Democrats have repeatedly pushed back against the president. The latest is Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), who averred that biological boys unfairly winning in girls’ sports “doesn’t harm anyone.”

“Letting the very small number of transgender students in Minnesota play on their school sports teams doesn’t harm anyone, but segregating them does,” Ellison said in a press conference this week. “Exclusion is a violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which has protected the rights of trans kids to participate in all extracurricular activities for decades.”

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) concluded that Minnesota’s transgender policies relating to girls’ sports put the state in violation of Title IX. The DOE declared that the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) “violated Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination by allowing males to compete in female sports and occupy female intimate facilities.” Both North Star State entities “allowed male athletes to compete on the girls’ Alpine ski team, the girls’ Nordic skiing team, the girls’ lacrosse team, the girls’ track and field team, the girls’ volleyball team, and the girls’ fastpitch softball team,” the DOE discovered.

DOE acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement, “For too many years, Minnesota’s political leadership has found itself on the wrong side of justice, common sense, and the American people. Now the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League find themselves on the wrong side of Title IX by allowing males to compete in women’s sports.” He continued, “The Trump Administration will not allow Minnesota or any other state to sacrifice the safety, fair treatment, and dignity of its female students to appease the false idols of radical gender ideology. Once an education program or entity takes federal funds, Title IX compliance becomes mandatory. And the federal government will hold Minnesota accountable until it recognizes that fact.”

Ellison and Minnesota were given 10 days to agree to comply with the Trump administration’s Title IX provisions, but Ellison has refused.

Democrats with their eyes on governors’ mansions have also been reticent to hop off the transgender bandwagon. Democratic nominee for governor of Virginia Abigail Spanberger has repeatedly dodged reporters’ questions on whether or not she supports allowing biological boys into girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, but did suggest that she’s open to allowing biological boys to continue playing in girls’ sports. Likewise, in a recently-resurfaced 2023 video clip, former Congresswoman Katie Porter, now a candidate in California’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, took aim at Riley Gaines, a former athlete and leading critic of allowing boys to play in girls’ sports.

In a conversation with media personality Piers Morgan, Porter quipped that she “disagreed” with Gaines, who she accused of “using” the issue of girls’ sports “to kind of get likes and get clicks.” When Morgan defended Gaines and noted that biological girls being forced to compete against biological boys in sports is “obviously unfair,” Porter replied, “That is something that I think our sporting bodies should be dealing with.” She added that “Riley is speaking up for herself. That is her prerogative.” Morgan shot back, “I think she’s speaking up for pretty much every female athlete in the world.”

For Democrats, FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter warned of a rocky road ahead if the party doesn’t reconsider. “This issue is not going away,” he told The Washington Stand, “and it’s not going away precisely because Democratic candidates have refused to back down from their support for biological males competing against women and girls in sports. Unfortunately for them,” Carpenter continued, “upwards of 75% of Americans agree men do not belong in women’s sports, including two-thirds of Gen Z voters. Democratic politicians in blue states prioritized the transgender lobby over the safety and privacy of the women and girls in their states, and, as a result, their base now expects them to double down and refuse to reconsider these incredibly unpopular policies.”

Politically speaking, Carpenter cautioned, “this is an untenable position to be in, as they find themselves set between three-fourths of the electorate and the extreme position of their base.

The Trump administration has also clashed with Maine’s Democratic officials, who have refused to comply with Title IX provisions related to girls’ sports and keeping biological males out of girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. Earlier this year, the administration stripped Maine’s university system and K-12 public schools of federal funding.