Maine Officials Refuse To Sign Title IX Compliance Agreement From Trump Administration
Officials in Maine have refused to sign a Title IX compliance agreement that would ban males from participating in girls' and women's sports.
The Department of Education initially launched an investigation into the state of Maine after a trans-identifying male track athlete won a state title in girls pole-vaulting earlier this year. The Maine Department of Education (MDOE), the Maine Principals' Association (MPA), and Greely High School were all found to be in violation of Title IX.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave them 10 days either to comply or to risk being referred to the Department of Justice for appropriate action. Now that the deadline is here, Maine officials have chosen the second option.
Maine Governor Janet Mills has no intention of complying with Donald Trump's executive order to ban males from girls' sports in her state.
(Kevin Dietsch & Win McNamee / Getty Images)
The Maine Principals' Association (MPA), the organization that governs school sports in the state, cited the state's Human Rights Act in its refusal to sign the Title IX agreement.
"The Maine Principals’ Association is bound by the law, including the Maine Human Rights Act (MHRA), which our participation policy reflects," a spokesperson for the MPA said in a statement. "We are unable to sign any resolution agreement that would mandate we create a new policy that would violate the law and MHRA."
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Their refusal to sign comes just after new polling shows that a majority of residents in Maine agree with the Trump Administration on the issue of protecting girls’ and women’s sports. Earlier this month, the American Parents Coalition surveyed around 600 registered Maine voters, 63 percent of whom said school sports participation should be based on biological sex.
The poll also found that 60 percent of respondents would support a ballot measure limiting participation in women’s and girls’ sports to biological females, including 64 percent of independents and 66 percent of parents with kids under age 18.
Maine Continues To Defy Trump Executive Order In Favor Of Radical Gender Ideology
Maine Rep. Laurel Libby, who was censured by the Maine House of Representatives for speaking out against the participation of transgender athletes in girls' sports, said she's disappointed in Governor Janet Mills, the MPA and Maine Democrats.
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"Governor Janet Mills, Speaker Ryan Fecteau, and the rest of Maine's Democrat Majority have chosen an extremist agenda over sanity, ignoring the rights and safety of Maine women and girls," Libby said in a statement to OutKick. "Despite countless pleas from their constituents and warnings from President Trump, Maine Democrats continue to force our girls to compete against biological males, effectively erasing them.
"As a result of their refusal to comply with President Trump's Executive Order and protect Maine girls, they will inevitably have to face the warranted repercussions from the Department of Justice, recklessly risking hundreds of millions in federal funding for Maine students."
On Feb. 5, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep males out of girls' and women's sports — promising to remove federal funding from schools and programs that don't comply.
The Maine Principals' Association (MPA), the organization that governs school sports in the state, came forward to afterward to say it would allow male athletes to continue competing in girls' and women’s sports, in direct defiance of the President's order.
Gov. Mills backed the MPA's decision, telling Trump, "We'll see you in court."
With the issue now in the hands of the DOJ, it looks like she might get her wish.