AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine House of Representatives passed Friday a proposal to ban transgender girls from competing in sports aligned with their gender identity and deadlocked on a similar measure following lengthy debates on the issue President Donald Trump has targeted the state over this year.
The controversial bills that a few Democratic lawmakers supported may struggle in the coming days to pass the Senate, where the majority party has a 20-15 advantage.
Maine has allowed transgender girls to compete in female sports for years under laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity, but Trump singled out Maine’s policies in February after Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, made a viral social media post about a transgender student who won a state track and field title.
Trump then sparred with Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, during a White House event and vowed to yank federal funding from the state unless Maine bans transgender girls from sports to follow his executive order on the matter. The Trump administration started that same month to cancel federal dollars and various programs benefiting Maine and its schools.
Mills said the state would continue to follow its existing laws that allowed a few transgender girls to compete among the state’s more than 40,000 high school athletes this past school year. The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Maine over the issue in a pending case that could have national implications by seeking to reinterpret the landmark Title IX statute.
Amid all of those developments came debates in the Democratic-controlled Legislature over Republican proposals to ban transgender female athletes from female sports and restrict access to certain accommodations.
Rep. Dick Campbell, R-Orrington, focused solely on athletics by seeking to ban schools and universities that receive state funding from allowing transgender female athletes to compete in female sports. The House passed it by a three-vote margin later Friday, with Reps. Dani O’Halloran of Brewer, Dave Rollins of Augusta, Wayne Farrin of Jefferson and Stephan Bunker of Farmington the lone Democrats to support it.
Another proposal from Rep. Liz Caruso, R-Caratunk, would ban transgender female athletes from female sports and require public schools to designate bathrooms, locker rooms and sleeping areas as usable by either “only” females or males.
The House deadlocked 72-72 on a motion to defeat it earlier Friday, with O’Halloran the only Democrat to back it. The tie opened up the chance for a motion to pass it. But House Majority Leader Matt Moonen, D-Portland, moved to table the measure, which succeeded in a vote after a previously absent Democrat, Rep. Ed Crockett of Portland, returned.
Rep. Adam Lee, D-Auburn, was marked absent for the votes on Caruso’s and Campbell’s bills, though he helped defeat other GOP measures Friday. Lee had recused himself from past Judiciary Committee votes on the issue, citing how his law firm represents the Maine Principals’ Association that oversees scholastic sports. Five other members — two Democrats, two Republicans and Democratic-leaning Rep. Sharon Frost, I-Belgrade — were gone or had excused absences.
The House voted 73-70 to defeat a second bill from Caruso to amend the Maine Human Rights Act to essentially bar transgender female athletes from female sports.
Lawmakers defeated other GOP measures Friday that sought to remove “gender identity” from the Maine Human Rights Act, prevent transgender students from using bathrooms aligned with their gender identity and require teachers to use names on students’ birth certificates. Several Republicans joined Democratic peers in opposing the Maine Human Rights Act-related bill.
The Senate and House defeated additional bills from Republican Sens. Sue Bernard of Caribou and David Haggan of Hampden that sought to block transgender girls from girls sports and bathrooms and roll back the state law allowing teens to consent to gender-affirming care. Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford was the lone Republican to join Senate Democrats in opposing them, while Rep. Traci Gere of Kennebunkport supported Haggan’s gender-affirming care measure.
Moonen criticized several of the measures Friday by noting they “are much broader than sports.” O’Halloran, the Brewer Democrat, acknowledged “my views are not popular in my own party” before arguing that “allowing trans athletes on all girls sports teams gives trans athletes an advantage that they would not otherwise have.”
Mills had only said in March that the state’s transgender athlete policies were “worthy of a debate” amid polling showing a majority of Mainers support banning transgender female athletes from sports aligned with their gender identity. She has not revealed her stance on each of the bills that came up Thursday and Friday for floor votes.