More Maine school districts align with Trump’s transgender policy, defying state law
The town of Richmond was trying to decide if it should amend a school policy to prohibit transgender girls from competing in girls sports. Among public commenters, debate was just about evenly split: should they follow a state law that allows them to compete, or an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that doesn’t?
The school board in this small Sagadahoc County town ultimately voted 3-2 in mid-October to align its policies with the executive order, becoming at least the eighth Maine district to do so. They’ve gone against the advice of the law firm that provides counsel to most of the state’s districts. Some, including those in
Augusta and
Kennebunk, have discussed, but ultimately declined, to adopt those changes.
Ever since Trump signed the order shortly after retaking office, his administration has threatened to pull funding from schools that allow students assigned male at birth to compete on girls sports teams in an interpretation of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education. Maine’s governor challenged Trump on the issue and pledged to see him in court, which led to the the Justice Department
filing a lawsuit against the state. That case is set to go to trial next April.
But districts like Richmond aren’t waiting for legal clarity, and the conservative Maine Policy Institute and the Maine Chapter of Parents’ Rights in Education are working directly with others that want to make that same leap. Their calculation is that state officials won’t challenge them.
That may not be true.
The state agency responsible for enforcing the Human Rights Act could already be doing so, its director acknowledged, although all complaints are confidential until their investigations are complete.
Daniel Farbman, an associate professor at Boston College Law School, said executive orders like this one are not laws themselves, just proposed interpretations of existing statute. A change to Title IX could be decided by the courts, but in the meantime, he said, state law still applies. In the meantime, a group of Maine Republicans are asking voters to sign
a ballot initiative that would change state law to align with the Trump administration’s order. Petitioners need to gather 68,000 signatures from registered voters to put the initiative on next year’s ballot and were out at polling locations on Tuesday to kick off that process.
