A transgender athlete dominating girls’ high school softball in Minnesota has prompted a legal challenge against the state for allowing male-born students to participate in female sports.
Female Athletes United filed a lawsuit on behalf of three high school girls competing against Marissa Rothenberger, a reportedly male-born athlete who has won accolades as the starting pitcher for the Champlin Park High School girls’ softball team.
“Last year, this athlete was awarded ’First-Team All-State Athlete’ honors for girls’ softball,” said the motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Minnesota. “By awarding a girls’ athletic award to a male athlete, Minnesota is decreasing the opportunities for girls to receive recognition and expanding opportunities for male victory.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is already locked in a legal skirmish with the Trump administration over whether the state has violated Title IX, the federal civil-rights law banning sex discrimination in education.
In February, the Department of Education launched a Title IX investigation into the Minnesota State High School League’s transgender-eligibility policy, prompting Mr. Ellison to sue “to stop Trump from bullying vulnerable children in Minnesota.”
Alliance Defending Freedom Legal Counsel Suzanne Beecher, who represents Female Athletes United, said that Minnesota is “putting the rights of males ahead of females.”
“By sacrificing protection for female athletes, Minnesota fails to offer girls equal treatment and opportunity, violating Title IX’s provisions,” said Ms. Beecher in a Tuesday statement. “Our client, Female Athletes United, is right to stand up for its members by challenging the state’s discriminatory policy and advocating for true equality in sports.”
The lawsuit did not identify Rothenberger by name, referring instead to “the male athlete,” but the Minnesota junior landed on the national transgender-athlete radar following an April 30 exposé in the watchdog publication Reduxx.
The three female softball players said they have been denied opportunities — and one of them has been injured — as a result of the state’s policy permitting biological males to compete in girls’ sports without placing “any physical limitations on participation,” such as lowering testosterone levels.
The first girl, a junior identified as E.G., said her team has lost three times in the last two seasons to Champlin Park, including being bounced from last year’s playoffs and falling in a regular-season game this season after the transgender athlete pitched a one-hit shutout.
The second girl, a junior identified as M.S., has committed to play collegiate softball, but left her club team after being told she would have to compete for pitching time with the transgender player. Her high school team will likely face the athlete in the playoffs this year and next year.
The third girl, a sophomore identified as E.P., said she was hit by a pitch thrown by the transgender pitcher during a club game.
“E.P. had never experienced pain like this when getting hit by pitches on other occasions. The speed and strength of the pitch made the pain more intense than she has felt when getting hit other times,” said the lawsuit.
Meet Marissa Rothenberger—a biological boy born Charlie Dean—now dominating girls’ softball in MN after mom changed his birth certificate. This isn’t progress. It’s erasure!
Title IX protects girls, not sacrifices them to appease broken male identities! pic.twitter.com/KtiivOtpvO
— Gays Against Groomers (@againstgrmrs) May 12, 2025
In its May 13 rankings, the Minnesota Star Tribune listed Champlin Park as the third-best girls’ softball team in the state.
“The Minnesota high school team with a male softball player recently defeated last year’s defending state champion team,” said the lawsuit. “M.S. and E.P. are discouraged because they feel like they do not have an equal chance at victory at the state tournament before they even set foot on the field.”
President Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” threatened to pull federal funding from states that allow biological males in female scholastic sports.
Mr. Ellison said the order violates Minnesota law. He referred to the Minnesota Human Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on gender identity.
“Because the president does not have the authority to unilaterally rescind funding from educational programs, the executive order does not have the force of law and cannot supersede Minnesota state law,” Mr. Ellison said in a Feb. 20 legal analysis.
The Reduxx article said court documents show that the transgender student’s mother successfully petitioned to have her child’s name and sex changed at age 9.
“Rothenberger was issued a new birth certificate showing that he was born ’female’ and altering his name from ’Charlie Dean’ to ’Marissa,’” said the Reduxx. “Minnesota is one of many states where altered birth certificates do not need to signify that the original document was altered.”
Minnesota House Democrats voted down legislation in March that would have required scholastic students to compete based on biological sex, not gender identity.
