The U.S. Department of Education on Wednesday announced that its Office for Civil Rights has found that Maine’s education department is violating Title IX, the landmark civil rights law barring sex discrimination in educational programs, by allowing transgender female athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.
In a letter to the Maine Department of Education, the federal agency said its investigation into the state’s policies for transgender athletes found that “public school districts throughout the
State of Maine that receive federal financial assistance and have policies or practices that allow boys to participate in girls’ athletics programs and/or deny female students access to female-only intimate facilities, are similarly in violation of Title IX.”
The U.S. DOE has given Maine’s education department 10 days to agree to a resolution that requires compliance with the federal interpretation of Title IX, forbid “males” from participating in any athletic program or using locker rooms or bathrooms that are “designated for females and that meaning of words such as ‘woman’ and ‘man’ are to be understood ‘in the context of the facts that there are only two sexes.’”
Additionally the resolution requires Maine to restore to recognitions to female athletes that they “would have earned but for the recognitions being given to males who participated in girls’ competitions,” and send those athletes letters of apology.
Not complying will risk federal funding, the U.S. DOE said.
The finding comes on the heels of a Monday announcement from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights that Greely High School in Cumberland and the Maine Principals’ Association were in violation of Title IX.
The Maine Principals’ Association, which oversees high school athletic competition in the state, has pushed back against the Trump administration claiming that it is in violation of federal civil rights law, arguing in a letter that the federal government does not have the authority to investigate its policies.
The Maine attorney general’s office is reviewing the proposed settlement agreement and has no further comment at this time, spokesperson Danna Hayes said.
A request for comment from the Maine Department of Education was not immediately returned.
BDN writer Marie Weidmayer contributed reporting.
