Did the State of Minnesota announce it will bring "transgender dolls" to public school classrooms as early as fall 2026? No, that's not true: The state's Department of Education denied that. The dolls are a project of University of Minnesota, and, according to the statement of the academics behind it, are meant to be a "therapeutic tool for use by licensed professionals", not for use in public classroom settings.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X by @EricLDaugh on July 25, 2026. It read:
🚨 IT'S OFFICIAL: Tim Walz [Governor of Minnesota - L.S.] is supporting these transgender dolls with removable genitalia being given to KIDS as YOUNG AS 4 YEARS OLD starting this fall Minnesota is now putting the dolls in school. The genitalia can be swapped between dolls. 'They will debut this fall in Minnesota classrooms to kids as young as 4...My Gender Dolls was launched by two professors.' Leftists in higher education are mentally ill, and Tim Walz should resign.
This is what the thumbnail from the video with the Fox News logo attached to the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @EricLDaugh on X.)
The Minnesota Department of Education, however, denied the claim about its purported affiliation with the project.
On July 28, 2026, the agency's director of communications Emily Buss told Lead Stories via email:
The quote, 'They will debut this fall in Minnesota classrooms to kids as young as 4...' is patently false. The paper-cutout dolls will not be implemented in Minnesota K-12 public schools. They are intended for use by licensed professionals and clinicians.
This is a University of Minnesota-led initiative, and the Minnesota Department of Education is not involved.
MyGender dolls (archived here) are a project led by two University of Minnesota professors, Dianne Berg and G. Nic Rider. Lead Stories attempted to get in touch with them directly, but the university said that the professors were out of office and shared a statement on their behalf. In part, it read:
We would like to respond to address the mis- and disinformation about the MyGender Dolls. The MyGender Dolls will not be in public schools this year.
The MyGender Dolls are a therapeutic tool for use by licensed professionals. All licensed professionals will undergo a required training before being able to use the MyGender Dolls in their therapeutic practice. There is no set launch date determined at this time.
Minnesota-based TV station KSTC-TV (archived here) that also covered the story reported (archived here) that the schools they contacted were not even aware of the project's existence.
