SUICIDE WISH?

The State of Minnesota requires schools to allow boys to compete in girls’ sports. It also requires schools to allow teenage boys to shower with the girls, and otherwise avail themselves of girls’ locker rooms. This is not, to put it mildly, a popular policy, especially with the parents of teenage girls. But Minnesota’s DFL party defends it doggedly.

It gets worse: the federal government has sued Minnesota, alleging that the state’s anti-girl policies violate Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments. That lawsuit potentially could cost Minnesota up to $3 billion in federal education funding.

But none of that matters to Minnesota’s Democrats. Republicans in the Minnesota House introduced legislation titled the Preserving Girls Sports Act. The bill would have prohibited boys from competing in girls’ sports. On Tuesday, it went down to defeat:

“By allowing biological males to compete in biological girls’ competitions, all we’ve fought for through Title IX and women’s athletics is meaningless,” [Representative Peggy] Scott said. “The federal government recognizes it. The International Olympic Committee recognizes it. Minnesota House Republicans recognize it. Yet not one House Democrat could find the courage to stand up for girls in the State of Minnesota, and that is just shameful.”
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Scott said the bill received a full vote of the Minnesota House on April 7. All 67 Republicans voted for the proposal, and all 66 Democrats voted against it. Because 68 votes are needed for legislation to be approved in the Minnesota House, her Preserving Girls Sports Act failed to pass by one vote.

“It’s embarrassing that for a second time this biennium, every House Democrat has voted in favor of sex-based discrimination,” Scott concluded.

I can’t explain it. Something like 75% of Minnesota voters disapprove of the Democrats’ position, and it could cost the state $3 billion. Nevertheless, allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports is a core principle of the Democratic Party, and they will go to the wall for it. Every single Democratic member of Minnesota’s House of Representatives–all 66 of them–voted to walk this plank.

They apparently are secure in the belief that, no matter what they do, their loyal voters will turn out for them, if only to show how much they hate Donald Trump. They might be right. We will find out in November.