A Maine parents’ group is working to gather 70,000 signatures in order to put a referendum question on the 2026 ballot to bar transgender-identifying males from competing in girls’ sports or using girls’ restrooms.
[RELATED: Trans Identifying Male Leap-frogs Competitors at Girls’ Pole Vaulting Meet in Maine…]
“As a high-school official, my role is to ensure that sports are fair and safe, but there’s nothing fair and nothing safe about letting males in female sports,” said said Scarborough track coach Allen Cornwall in an advertisement for the Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine Ballot Question Committee. It’s robbing our girls of their dreams, their opportunities, and risking their physical safety; that’s why I’m supporting the Protect Girls’ Sports Initiative that designates Maine sports as male, female, or co-ed.”
“Sign the petition, help gather signatures, make a donation. Common sense, voter enacted. It’s time we protect our girls’ sports in Maine,” he added.
Protect Girls’ Sports filed their initial financial report with the Maine Ethics Commission earlier this month on October 8.
According to their website, the committee is working to obtain the 70,000 signatures required to bring the controversial question of transgender-identifying males in girls’ sports to the people of Maine.
Cornwall promised on Facebook that he would be out on Election Day this November gathering signatures outside polling places, and that volunteers with the committee would be doing the same across the state.
“I will be at town hall on Election Day collecting signatures. Please support us in Protecting Girls Sports in Maine. People will be throughout the state collecting signatures so look for the sign to sign the petition near you,” he said.
Under their proposed referendum ballot question, all schools would be required to designate sports and private areas by sex as either male, female, or co-ed.
The group argues that their proposed referendum would bring the Maine Human Rights Act (MHRA) in line with the federal interpretation of Title IX antidiscrimination laws, which require school sports to be designated by biological sex.
“This will harmonize the Maine Human Rights Act with Federal Title IX, resulting in requirements and protections for individuals with biologically-verifiable differences in sex development. This is important, as we will effect change across the entire state all at once, while providing a private right of action for enforcement, clarifying statutory cross-references, and ensuring severability,” says the ballot question committee.
Currently, the MHRA establishes self-selected gender identity as a protected class. Gov. Janet Mills (D-Maine) and the Maine Principals’ Association have used the MHRA to defend their refusal to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
The Protect Girls’ Sports proposal would go into effect in January 2027, following the November 2026 elections, when the group hopes the referendum question will appear.
Republican lawmakers tried in the most recent legislative session to pass legislation that would have worked similarly to the proposed referendum, but their efforts ultimately failed in the Democrat-controlled legislature.
[RELATED: House Passes Bill to Bar Males from Girls’ Sports One Day After Senate Nixes Similar Bill…]
Through the referendum process, Mainers have the opportunity to enact policies even without support from the legislature.
In the upcoming November election two weeks from today, voters will weigh in on two referendum questions, both on issues that failed to become law through the normal legislative process. Question 1 would implement voter ID requirements and make changes to absentee voting, while Question 2 would institute a stricter “red-flag” gun control policy.
