MN Gymnast Fights For His Team and Equal Protection of the Law.

University of Minnesota (UMN) gymnast, Evan Ng, filed a legal challenge against his school to reinstate his varsity gymnastics program, asserting his constitutional right of equal protection against gender discrimination as stated in the the language of Title IX.

In 2020, the University of Minnesota announced the elimination of three varsity programs- men’s gymnastics, men’s tennis, and men’s indoor track and field, while maintaining all the female teams in those sports.

Alumni group, the Friends of Minnesota Men’s Gymnastics, offered to provide funding for the program to continue, and the team already had over $800,000 in endowment funds held by the UMN. The school declined the offer by alumni and cited the need to cut the teams in order reduce number of male athletes to comply with Title IX’s proportionality guidance.

The lawsuit filing attracted national media attention.

The Star Tribune wrote that Evan Ng, “urged the university to ‘do the right thing’ and reinstate the storied program, which was in place for nearly 120 years, won 21 Big Ten championships and sent an athlete to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.”

Evan’s lawsuit is one of the most important challenges in over a decade to the constitutionality of the gender quota system that athletic departments implement to in order to comply with Title IX.

The Washington Post quoted UMN spokesperson, Jake Ricker, as stating, “Importantly, this lawsuit isn’t just about the University: It is a broad challenge to how Title IX has been implemented by the U.S. government across colleges and Universities nationwide to achieve equal opportunity.”

For more information about the lawsuit visit the Pacific Legal Foundation.

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