The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights announced Monday that the Maine Department of Education, Maine Principals’ Association and a high school in the state violated Title IX by allowing transgender students to compete in girls’ sports.
The agency said it is giving the three entities 10 days to commit to resolving the matter through a signed agreement or “risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for appropriate action.”
“The Maine Department of Education may not shirk its obligations under Federal law by ceding control of its extracurricular activities, programs, and services to the Maine Principals’ Association,” Anthony Archeval, acting director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights, said in a statement. “We hope the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association, and Greely High School will work with us to come to an agreement that restores fairness in women’s sports.”
Soon after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designed to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
Last month, during a meeting with governors, Trump characterized Maine as out of line with the order and told the state’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, “You better comply, because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding.”
Mills responded by saying: “We’ll see you in court.”
The Trump administration followed by launching an investigation into whether Maine violated Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in school programs, by allowing trans women and girls to participate in female sports.
The clash plunged Maine into the national spotlight and reinvigorated a debate over gender and sports.
Since that time, the Democratic majority in the Maine House of Representatives voted to censure Republican State Rep. Laurel Libby over a controversial post she made before the showdown between Trump and Mills about a high school athlete who won a girls’ track competition. The post included a photo of the student and identified the student by first name, with the name in quotation marks, saying that the athlete had previously competed in boys’ track.
“Sharing images of kids online without their consent is a clear violation of the bond of trust and respect between citizens and their Legislators. There is a time and place for policy debates. That time and place will never be a social media post attacking a Maine student,” House Speaker Ryan Fecteau said in February.
Libby then filed a federal lawsuit against Fecteau and House clerk Robert Hunt claiming the censure violated her right to free speech. The lawsuit said the censure stripped her right to speak and vote on the House floor, and that disenfranchises the thousands of residents in her district.
“I have the constitutional right to speak out and my constituents have the right to full representation in the Maine House,” Libby said in a statement. “Biological males have no place in girls’ sports. Our girls have every right, under federal law, to fair competition in sports.”
The lawsuit seeks a judgment that the censure is unlawful. It also seeks the restoration of Libby’s voting and speaking rights on the House floor.
This story first appeared on NBC Boston.
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