Maine has been thrust into the national spotlight over the inclusion of transgender athletes in scholastic sports.
Last week, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from Maine if it didn’t comply with an executive order that seeks to keep trans athletes out of girls and women’s sports.
That led to a war of words between Trump and Gov. Janet Mills who has pledged to follow the law and go to court to settle the issue.
In response, the Trump administration has launched three Title IX investigations into the state, the University of Maine System, the University of Maine and Greely High School, where a trans girl won a track and field title last week.
Then, on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Mills asserting the Trump administration’s position that Title IX bars trans athletes from girls and women’s sports and threatened to sue the state if federal investigations uncover any Title IX violations.
Given the ever-escalating feud between Trump and Mills, let’s take a brief look at how the state’s policy toward trans athletes evolved.
How are scholastic sports regulated?
Two major laws come into play here and one organization.
The first is Title IX, a federal law passed in 1972 that guarantees equal opportunities to girls and women to compete in sports in any educational institution that receives federal funding.
Then there is the Maine Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in education, employment, housing and more on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, ancestry or national origin. The act was amended in 2019 to provide a more clear definition of gender identity and again in 2021 to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity in education.
The Maine Principals’ Association oversees scholastic sports for 151 public and private schools.
What is the Maine Principals’ Association’s role?
In testimony before the Legislature in 2023, the association noted it has a longstanding single-sex policy to comply with Title IX.
Between 2013 and 2021, it had a standalone Transgender Participation Policy, later changed to a Gender Identity Participation Policy, which allowed trans athletes to play in sports consistent with their gender identity, unless there was a safety risk.
Under the policy, the student could play on teams consistent with their gender identity or their sex assigned at birth, but not both. That student’s school had the “sole authority” to verify their gender identity for registering and participating in sports. The association didn’t require the submission of medical or other official documents to prove gender identity.
After the Legislature made further modifications to the Maine Human Rights Act, the association deferred to that statute and instructed schools to follow that law.
How common are trans athletes in scholastic sports?
There are trans athletes at Maine schools. But they represent just a small fraction of all high school athletes.
For the 2023-2024 school year, about 45,000 students participated in high school sports in Maine, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. (That does count students who participated in two or more sports multiple times.)
Meanwhile, between 2013 and 2021, the Maine Principals’ Association heard from 56 trans students wishing to participate on a high school sports team consistent with their gender identity, only four of whom were trans girls.
When Trump issued his executive order earlier this month, the association stood by its inclusion of transgender athletes.