There was a ray of hope for Maine conservatives amid a string of failures at the voting booth on Tuesday, coming in the form of a very successful signature-gathering campaign from the Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine Ballot Question Committee (BQC), which aims to put a referendum question on the midterm ballot to ban males from girls’ sports.
Volunteers stood outside polling locations across the state all day Tuesday and successfully gathered 53,000 signatures, which is over half of their 100,000 goal.
[RELATED: Maine Parents Group Collecting Signatures for a Referendum Vote to Bar Males from Girls’ Sports…]
“The Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine ballot initiative kicked off yesterday. On election day we collected over 53,000 signatures. We are well over half way to our goal. The Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine Ballot Initiative designates school sports activities and facilities by sex where everyone gets to play sports,” said Maine father Leyland Streiff in a video for the BQC.
The BQC must gather 67,682 verified signatures for their referendum question to appear on the 2026 ballot, but the committee is aiming much higher for prudential reasons.
The proposed referendum would require all schools in Maine to designate sports and private spaces, such as locker rooms and restrooms, by biological sex rather than self-selected gender identity, as either male, female, or coed.
Republicans in the legislature have repeatedly tried to pass laws to bar males from girls’ sports, including in the most recent legislative session, but those attempts have proven unsuccessful in the Democrat-controlled legislature.
In response, Protect Girls’ Sports filed its initial financial report with the Maine Ethics Commission on October 8, in hopes of taking the issue out of the hands of the liberal legislature and putting it directly into the hands of Mainers.
Currently, the Maine Principals’ Association (MPA) and the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) have urged schools to continue allowing males into girls’ sports in adherence to the Maine Human Rights Act (MHRA), which enshrines self-selected gender identity as a protected class.
They maintain that the MHRA takes precedence over President Donald Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which establishes that Title IX antidiscrimination law requires girls’ sports and spaces to exclude biological males.
According to Protect Girls’ Sports, their referendum would align the MHRA with federal Title IX laws.
“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.
“Insanity! As if a girl can compete against a man,” said one woman who spoke with The Maine Wire after signing the petition outside a polling place.
On Tuesday, Mainers voted down a referendum question to require universal voter ID and make changes to absentee voting by an extremely wide 62-38 percent margin.
[RELATED: Botched Voter ID for Maine Effort Tanks on Election Day…]
On the same day, voters approved another referendum to enact stricter “red-flag” gun control laws that make it easier for the government to revoke someone’s Second Amendment rights without due process.
