{"id":1219,"date":"2025-04-19T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/?p=1219"},"modified":"2025-04-21T14:33:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T14:33:03","slug":"maine-takes-center-stage-in-trump-trans-athletes-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/19\/maine-takes-center-stage-in-trump-trans-athletes-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine takes center stage in Trump trans athletes fight"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Maine has found itself the surprising center of the nation\u2019s debate over \u2014 and the Trump administration\u2019s crusade against \u2014 transgender athletes in girls\u2019 sports.<\/p>\n

That position leaves the state, one of the smallest and least populous, vulnerable to weighty financial and social consequences as it takes on President Trump<\/p>\n

It started with four words in February. \u201cSee you in court,\u201d Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) told  Trump at the White House in an exchange<\/a> that followed public threats to her state\u2019s funding. <\/p>\n

The president pressed Mills to comply with his executive order to ban transgender athletes from girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports, which she has argued violates a Maine anti-discrimination law. Trump says the state is violating Title IX, the federal civil rights law against sex discrimination, by allowing trans girls to compete. <\/p>\n

Mills refused, and the backlash was swift. <\/p>\n

The Education Department announced the same day an investigation into Maine over alleged Title IX violations. The Department of Health and Human Services, which recently began probing states and schools with transgender athletes, launched its own inquiry the following day. <\/p>\n

Then came a series of actions against the state with less of a connection to the issue at hand. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration abruptly discontinued \u2014 and later agreed to renegotiate \u2014 funding for the Maine Sea Grant program, which bolsters the state\u2019s coastal economy; the U.S. Department of Agriculture froze funds for the state<\/a> that a judge later ordered it to restore; Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek ordered two data collection contracts<\/a> with Maine terminated; the Justice Department cut funding<\/a> for several of the state corrections department\u2019s grant programs. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvidence would support a conclusion that Maine is being treated disproportionately more harsh than other states when it comes to this direction of federal attention,\u201d state Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) said in a recent interview. <\/p>\n

Federal administration officials have, on several occasions, said other states allowing transgender students to participate in girls\u2019 sports will face similar repercussions, and the Education Department last month opened Title IX investigations into schools and interscholastic sports organizations in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Washington state. <\/p>\n

Attorney General Pam Bondi said this week that, outside of Maine, California and Minnesota are the \u201ctop two\u201d states that \u201cshould be on notice,\u201d citing their noncompliance with the Trump administration\u2019s orders to ban trans athletes and state policies requiring prisons to house transgender inmates based on their gender identity, which violates another Trump executive order<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But the administration hasn\u2019t yet subjected any other state to Maine-level scrutiny. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019ve seen the same publicly antagonistic response from other states that we did from Governor Mills versus President Trump, and I think that was very intentional on her part,\u201d said state Rep. Laurel Libby (R), whose Facebook post about a transgender high school studenthelped catapult the state<\/a> to the frontline of the nation\u2019s debate on trans athletes. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen other states have the same reaction that publicly, and I am sure that that plays into it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Democrats, who control both chambers of Maine\u2019s state legislature, voted in February to censure Libby for the Facebook post, which included the student\u2019s photos, name and deadname \u2014 the name they used before transitioning \u2014 without their knowledge or consent. The censure resolution, which the House adopted along party lines, said the Republican lawmaker used the student, who is a minor, \u201cto advance her political agenda.\u201d <\/p>\n

Libby challenged her censure<\/a> the following month in a federal lawsuit, arguing the action, which prevents her from voting on legislation or speaking on the floor, disenfranchises her constituents \u201cin retaliation for protected speech on a highly important and hotly debated matter of public concern.\u201d A Rhode Island judge denied Libby\u2019s request for a preliminary injunction on Friday. <\/p>\n

In an interview, Libby said she supports the Trump administration\u2019s response to Maine\u2019s defiance \u2014 and so do most of the roughly 9,000 people she represents in Southern Maine. <\/p>\n

She stood alongside Bondi during a news conference in Washington on Wednesday, where the Justice Department announced a civil lawsuit<\/a> against Maine\u2019s Department of Education for what it said were willful violations of the federal civil rights law. Speaking before a throng of reporters, Libby said the federal government\u2019s actions were supported by a recent University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll<\/a> that found roughly 64 percent of Mainers opposed trans athletes in girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports. <\/p>\n

National polls on the issue have yielded similar results: 79 percent of Americans surveyed in a New York Times\/Ipsos poll<\/a> published in February said transgender athletes should not be permitted to participate in women\u2019s sports. A recent Pew Research Center survey<\/a> found Americans have grown more supportive of policies restricting transgender rights overall, including ones that require athletes to compete on sports teams that match their birth sex. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make this right, and whether the solution comes from the federal government pulling funding until we stop discriminating against Maine women and girls or the solution comes legislatively, which is what it should be, Maine should correct this,\u201d Libby told The Hill. <\/p>\n

Republican state lawmakers in Maine introduced at least three separate bills this year to prevent schools from allowing transgender students to compete on girls\u2019 sports teams, though none advanced out of committee. <\/p>\n

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) voted early last month to advance an unsuccessful nationwide ban that the state\u2019s independent senator and two Democratic House members opposed. Collins later said her state\u2019s handling of the issue contradicts the \u201cspirit and intent\u201d<\/a> of Title IX. <\/p>\n

By and large, officials on either side appear to have dug in their heels. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis matter has never been about school sports or the protection of women and girls, as has been claimed, it is about states\u2019 rights and defending the rule of law against a federal government bent on imposing its will,\u201d Mills said this week<\/a> after the Justice Department announced its lawsuit. <\/p>\n

Ahead of the Education Department\u2019s referral of its investigation to the Justice Department, Maine\u2019s Assistant Attorney General Sarah A. Forster wrote in a letter<\/a> to the department\u2019s Office for Civil Rights that the state and federal governments \u201care at an impasse.\u201d <\/p>\n

Bondi, responding this week to criticism that the federal government is throwing its full weight at a state with just two known transgender girls in school sports, said, \u201cI don\u2019t care if it\u2019s one, I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s two, I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s 100 \u2014 it\u2019s going to stop, and it\u2019s going to stop in every single state.\u201d <\/p>\n

Asked about next steps, Frey, Maine\u2019s attorney general, said his office is prepared for what will likely be a contentious court battle with the Trump administration \u2014 one that could have far-reaching implications for Title IX. Federal courts have split over whether the law precludes transgender students from participating in sports that match their gender identity. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to look at the rule of law as our guide and we\u2019re also going to remind the Trump administration that it\u2019s the rule of law that they are bound to as well. They don\u2019t operate above the law,\u201d Frey said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be in court,\u201d he added, emphasizing the word \u201cwill\u201d in a nod to Mills\u2019s promise to Trump, \u201cwhich will provide an opportunity for transparency, not only around what the federal government thinks is going on here, but also our ability to point out where, both as a matter of process and as a matter of substantive law, we believe Maine is on the right side of this.\u201d <\/p>\n

James Nussbaum, an attorney focused on higher education and sports law in Indiana, said the outcome of Maine\u2019s battle with the Trump administration over transgender athletes won\u2019t likely remain insular. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t know how this doesn\u2019t end up at the Supreme Court at some point, maybe especially with the government being involved,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

In that case, \u201cIt would be hard to overstate how big the impact on Title IX would be,\u201d Nussbaum said, \u201cbecause how they interpret sex is going to have a lot broader implications than just transgender participation in athletics.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maine has found itself the surprising center of the nation\u2019s debate over \u2014 and the Trump administration\u2019s crusade against \u2014 transgender athletes in girls\u2019 sports. That position leaves the state, one of the smallest and least populous, vulnerable to weighty financial and social consequences as it takes on President Trump It started with four words […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1220,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions\/1220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entouragecover.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}