Maine officials told President Donald Trump’s administration Friday the state will not go along with the Republican’s demands on banning transgender girls from sports.
The response sets up a likely court battle and an attempt by the U.S. Department of Justice to punish Maine for not changing its policies that allow transgender girls to compete in sports. The U.S. Department of Education had given the Maine education department and Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office until Friday to say whether the state will comply with Trump’s demands.
Assistant Attorney General Sarah Forster told Bradley Burke, the regional director for the federal Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, in a Friday letter that the state reviewed the federal government’s draft agreement from March 31 and will not sign the agreement nor propose any revisions.
“We agree that we are at an impasse,” Forster wrote. “Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls’ and women’s sports teams. Your letters to date do not cite a single case that so holds.”
Trump clashed with Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, during a White House event in February and threatened to pull federal funding from Maine if the state does not follow his executive order seeking to ban to transgender girls from sports. Trump is making an untested legal claim that allowing transgender girls to compete violates the landmark Title IX law from 1972 that bans sex-based discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding.
Trump sparred with Mills after Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, made a viral social media singling out a transgender Maine high school student who won a state track and field title. Various federal agencies then launched investigations that swiftly found Maine and its schools are violating Title IX, but state officials noted federal investigators did not question them before asserting the state is violating the law. The Maine Principals’ Association, which oversees scholastic sports, said two transgender girls are competing this school year.
The U.S. Department of Justice will likely seek to punish Maine in response to Friday’s notice, but a court will ultimately settle the standoff. Frey spokesperson Danna Hayes said Friday the state will not comment further at this time.
