Republican lawmakers from Maine urge Democrats to reverse the policy that allows transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports. They warn, however, that failure to do so could threaten hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to public schools.
A spokesperson for Maine’s Attorney General confirmed on Thursday that the Trump Administration had issued a “Notice of Violation” against the Maine Department of Education for violation of Title IX federal laws, intended to protect women’s rights.
This “official” notification follows an investigation by the Health and Human Services Department (HHS), Office of Civil Rights. The Office of Civil Rights had investigated the Maine Department of Education for several weeks. This investigation was prompted by reports of transgender female athletes competing in women’s sports in Maine despite President Donald Trump’s executive order that the practice be banned nationwide.
Trump’s executive orders are powerful because they can withhold funding for federal education to states that do not follow his instructions. According to HHS’s notification of violation, the federal funding for Maine education is likely to be cut by more than $700,000. According to the Portland Press Herald, this year, the U.S. Department of Education allocated roughly $250 million to Maine’s K-12 schools.
In an interview with Fox last month, she added that Maine also violates directives of the Department of Education as well as precedents established in several previous cases that overturned former president Joe Biden’s Title IX Regulations that allowed athletic eligibility to be determined based on one’s gender identity.
Katrina Smith (R-Palermo), Assistant House Minority leader, said: “It’s time to stop promoting radical ideologies and start putting the children first.” The Mills Administration’s policy to allow biological boys into girls’ sports physically and psychologically mistreated young women. Now, this policy is harming every child and teacher as federal funding will be lost for our schools.
The coalition, which includes Maine House Republicans, also issued a “public call to actions” to Mills’ administration to change its policies that allow sports eligibility to depend on one’s gender identity.
Mills said to Trump face-to-face, during a meeting last month with Governors in the White House, that she did not intend to follow his order to eliminate transgender athletes from female sports. Mills said to Trump in the live broadcast of their meeting that she was “going to see [him] in court.”
According to an expert civil rights lawyer, Sarah Perry, who has decades of experience in Title IX litigation, Maine will be as successful as Mills may hope.
Maine entered into an agreement with the Department of Education in which it promised to adhere to federal civil rights laws. Perry said on Twitter that [Mills]’ reliance on state laws contrary to federal law would prove fatal for any continued resistance.
She added in an interview last month that in addition to federal law, Maine is also flouting directives from the Department of Education and a previously established precedent from a slew of cases that overturned former President Joe Biden’s Title IX regulations allowing athletic eligibility to be determined by one’s preferred gender identity.
