Maine Found Guilty Of “Discrimination” For Allowing Trans Athletes In Sports
The Department of Health and Human Services says Maine has violated Title IX by discriminating against cisgender women.
Trump’s anti-trans battle with Maine continues. Less than a month after the president’s verbal spat with Maine’s Democratic Governor Janet Mills, the Trump administration has found Maine in violation of federal law for allowing trans athletes to participate in women’s sports teams.
The White House’s investigation into Maine appeared to last just four days. On February 21, administration officials announced they would investigate Maine for potential Title IX violations, on the basis that allowing trans athletes to compete on women’s sports teams constitutes sex-based discrimination against cisgender women. By February 25, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent a memo to Mills and Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey informing them the investigation had concluded, and the state had been found in violation of Title IX. According to the memo, Maine’s policy of allowing trans athletes to participate on sports teams that align with their gender identity “violates Title IX by denying female student athletes in the State of Maine an equal opportunity to participate” in school sports.
Not included in the memo were any records of typical investigative practices, such as gathering records or witness testimony. In fact, the official “evidence” appeared to include an as-yet-unverified Facebook post from Republican State Representative Laurel Libby, in which Libby posted pictures of an unidentified child and claimed they were a transgender high school athlete who had just won a girls’ track meet. Libby was later censured by Maine’s state legislature for refusing to remove the post.
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Notably, the HHS memo also specifically identified trans women and girls as the target of the Trump administration’s Title IX concerns, claiming trans men and boys do not constitute the same risk because cisgender male athletes “are not subject to heightened safety or competitive concerns.”
The administration’s investigation into Maine began just hours after Trump publicly confronted Governor Mills for her refusal to abide by his recent executive order, which banned trans women from participating on women’s sports teams. At the time, Mills held strong against the president’s questioning, telling Trump, “We’ll see you in court.”
The HHS investigation is not the only one launched into the state following Trump and Mills’ exchange. The U.S. Department of Education and Department of Agriculture are also probing.
So, what happens next? Governor Mills can comply and eliminate trans-inclusive policies for women’s sports teams “in any interscholastic, intercollegiate, club or intramural athletics.” Or, the more likely option, Mills could sue and send the case to the First Circuit courts. Because this is such a rare case, there is very little legal precedent. However, there is a good chance the First Circuit will side with the state and uphold the Maine Human Rights Act, due to previous decisions. If taken to court, the decision in this case would set a historical precedent and could cause the other pending probes against Maine’s inclusive policies to bulldoze over trans rights.
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If Maine does neither of these things, the HHS has threatened to withhold funding to the state. The memo did not clarify what amount of funding would be withheld.
