The board of the Spruce Mountain school district, or RSU 73, voted on Thursday night to stick with their amended policy that keeps girls sports exclusively for biological females despite a new lawsuit brought by the Maine Human Rights Commission alleging they are in violation of state law.
The handful of Maine school districts that voted to change their policies about biological males participating in female sports over the course of this year are now coming under new legal pressure to abandon their embrace of Title IX protections and revert to the Maine Department of Education and Maine Principals’ Association guidance – which is reflected in the policies of most school districts in the state, recent developments show.
RSU 73 is one of a growing number of districts that changed their policies on this front since President Donald Trump issued an executive order protecting girls in school sports and affirmed a federal interpretation on Title IX civil rights protections that termed the previous policies inclusive of gender fluidity to be discriminatory.
[RELATED: Maine Human Rights Commission Sues Schools That Barred Trans-Identifying Males from Girls’ Sports]
A high profile showdown between the president and Maine Governor Janet Mills (D) ensued in late February. Now that Gov. Mills is running for the U.S. Senate, her political allies in Augusta appear newly-committed to cracking down on those who follow the federal guidance on this count.
The Livermore, Livermore Falls and Jay-area school district’s board meeting on Thursday saw proponents and opponents of trans-identifying student participation in school sports engage in an at times heated debate.
In the course of this, some board members argued the policy protects girls’ sports and maintains sex-based privacy, while others — including teachers and community members — warned that the policy undermines the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ students.
One Spruce Mountain teacher urged the board to consider that “caring for our LGBTQ students and making them feel accepted is actually suicide prevention,” WMTW-8 reported on Friday.
Ultimately the board’s vote Thursday ensures that, for now, RSU 73 will continue enforcing the policy that excludes transgender athletes from girls’ sports and restricts access to restrooms and locker rooms consistent with gender identity — even as legal challenges proceed and the debate over transgender rights in Maine schools intensifies, WABI-5 reported.
Other districts are also feeling the heat. MSAD 70 (Hodgdon), RSU 24 (Sullivan), MSAD 52 (Greene, Leeds and Turner) as well as schools in Danforth and Richmond also voted to change course from Maine’s arguably too inclusive gender in sports policy to more clearly defined ones like RSU 73’s.
Now these districts are also feeling the legal pressure from the MHRA lawsuit as other districts will likely watch from the sidelines to see how this plays out. Given the stakes, it is not unlikely that national groups may enter the debate to provide legal defense for the districts currently under fire.
