A group of Maine Republicans are pushing for a 2026 referendum that would bar transgender students from sports teams and private spaces that align with their gender identities.
It would require Maine public schools to designate teams as existing for “male” or “female” players and require students to play on teams matching their biological sex as it appears on their birth certificates. The proposal would allow students to file civil suits if they feel they are deprived of opportunity or face injury from playing sports with transgender students.
The proposed initiative aims to enforce President Donald Trump’s stance on Title IX, the law barring sex discrimination in schools. It has been the subject of the Republican president’s war with Gov. Janet Mills about Maine’s longstanding protections for transgender students in schools and other public settings. His administration is suing Maine and other states on the issue.
The Department of Justice’s April lawsuit mentioned only three transgender students on scholastic girls teams across the state. But the issue has turned into a culture-war touchpoint nationally and in conservative areas of Maine, where at least six school districts have chosen to buck state law in favor of Trump’s interpretation.
Former state Rep. Heidi Sampson, R-Alfred, who is advising the petitioners, said the goal is to get the question on the November 2026 ballot. She directs the Maine Education Initiative, which has pushed school districts to adopt its resolutions barring transgender students from sports. But she says the group is not formally involved in the petition process.
The lead petitioner is Leyland Streiff of Brunswick. His brother, Justin, is the chief operating officer of Turning Point USA, the group founded by conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated at a Utah event last month. Others backing the effort are Maine Republican Party spokesperson Kristina Parker and Augusta school board member James Orr.
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ office has accepted the application and given organizers a draft of the proposed law. Organizers will be free to begin collecting signatures by Nov. 3, one day before Maine holds a referendum election on voter ID and a red flag law. They will need roughly 68,000 signatures from registered voters to make next year’s ballot.
The fight between Mills and Trump put Maine’s transgender policies at the center of debate in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. One Republican-led bill that would have barred transgender girls from girls’ sports got through the closely divided House of Representatives in June but was killed in the Senate.
It is a popular issue for Republicans. A Pew Research survey from February found that two thirds of Americans support banning transgender people from sports teams matching their gender identities. In the same national survey, only 49 percent said they supported banning trans people from public bathrooms that match their gender identities.
Activists will have to get the signatures by early February to get on the 2026 ballot. It will be a packed election, with the national parties hotly contesting U.S. Sen. Susan Collins’ seat, a blockbuster race in the 2nd Congressional District and a wide-open contest for governor with Mills termed out and running against Collins.
Streiff declined to comment on the petition and directed questions to Sampson. Parker, the Maine GOP spokesperson, said the party has no official position on or connection to the proposal at this time, but added that the party “would be in favor of protecting girls’ sports.”
“This proposed ballot initiative drags the conversation about sports and bathrooms back into the public spotlight while most folks are more concerned about continued access to healthcare, the price of groceries and housing, and ensuring they have heat this winter,” Gia Drew, the executive director of EqualityMaine, said in a statement.
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.
