The debate over transgender student athletes in school sports is once again in the spotlight in Augusta, and soon, it will be up to Maine voters to decide.
Lawmakers had a choice Tuesday: adopt a citizen initiative changing Maine law to require participation based on sex at birth, not gender identity, or send that same question to Maine voters this fall.
Ultimately, the judiciary committee decided not to move forward with the bill, meaning it’ll be up to voters to decide if it becomes law.
“Humans are made male or female,” Holly Lusk of the Christian Civic League of Maine said.
“This measure would create a bureaucratic nightmare for families, students and schools,” GLAAD attorney Mary Bonauto said.
The bill called for school sports teams to be separated by the sex students were assigned at birth, with girls on girls teams and boys on boys teams, while co-ed teams would remain open to both. It would also allow girls to join a boys team if no girls team is available.
Several former athletes took to the podium to testify in support of the bill. One mother, Marianne Hunsinger, also took a stance, getting emotional while recounting a time her daughter realized she lost to a transgender girl participating in her track-and-field competition.
“Her face just fell, and as a mother, it was really hard to watch her feel so rejected and lost,” Hunsinger said.
Some opponents testified the issue comes down to fairness.
“Under Maine law as it stands, every child gets an opportunity to go to school and, with some guardrails, have the same opportunity as every child. This bill would end that,” Maine Human Rights Commission Executive Director Kit Thompson said.
Maine’s Fair and Free Schools organization made its case at the State House before the public hearing started, arguing this is not a one-size-fits-all situation.
“A blanket ban that treats kindergarteners the same as it treats high school seniors, and it will lead to lawsuits and big costs because of bad public policy,” Free and Fair Schools campaign manager David Farmer said.
The other component of the bill would force public schools to maintain separate restrooms, locker rooms, shower rooms and other private spaces for each sex. Supporters argue neither males nor females belong in each other’s designated private spaces.
“To tell a high schooler in a locker room that tense, sick feeling in her gut and not only accommodate but celebrate the presence of a male when she changes her clothes for gym class is gaslighting,” Lusk said.
Others say restrictions placed on athletics or on facilities would violate equal rights and lead to harassment of the LGBTQ+ community.
“God loves and stands with the vulnerable and persecuted and expects us to do the same thing,” Maine Council of Churches Executive Director Jane Field said.
This referendum will be on the November ballot. If it passes, these restrictions will go into effect in January 2027.
