USA Powerlifting rejected JayCee Cooper's application in 2018 to compete in the women's division of its events on the ground that he enjoys strength advantages over women. Cooper sued in 2021, and the trial court sided with him.
But the Minnesota Court of Appeals sent the case back to the trial court in March, saying there were “genuine issues of fact” about whether USA Powerlifting excluded Cooper because of his transgender identity and whether the organization had a “legitimate business reason” for rejecting him. Cooper then took the case to the state's highest court.
Cooper's attorney, Christy Hall, said USA Powerlifting's policy discriminates against all men claiming to be women, regardless of their individual physical capabilities, and urged the justices to reverse the Court of Appeals decision.
Ansis Viksnins, an attorney for USA Powerlifting, argued that the law requires courts to answer the question of whether a defendant had a discriminatory motive, not just whether the action was discriminatory. He said the Court of Appeals was right to send the case back to the trial court to determine whether the sports group had a legitimate reason for barring Cooper from competing in its women's division.
In an indication of the intense interest in the Minnesota case, numerous athletes and organizations on both sides filed friend-of-the-court briefs, including former tennis champion Martina Navratilova, who was part of a group of 83 female athletes backing USA Powerlifting’s position. One of the organizations backing Cooper is the locally based LGBTQ+ rights group Gender Justice.
USA Powerlifting argued in its brief that biological male powerlifters have a significant advantage in a sport that relies inherently on strength. The group noted that Cooper could compete in an open division it created in 2021 to serve all gender identities.
"If male-born powerlifters can compete against female-born athletes, we have not only failed in our responsibility to provide fair competition for our women competitors, but we have thrown the door wide open to eliminating other category distinctions such as age and weight,” USA Powerlifting President Larry Maile said in a statement.
