The executive director of the primary governing body for high school sports in the state of Maine said athletic teams will continue to determine eligibility based on a student's stated gender identity, despite the president's executive order seeking to keep "men out of women's sports."
Mike Burnham, executive director of the Maine Principals Association (MPA), said the president's order conflicts with state law aimed at protecting human rights and, as a result, the MPA will defer to the latter when it comes to determining athletic eligibility.
"The executive order and our Maine state Human Rights Act are in conflict, and the Maine Principal's Association (MPA) will continue to follow state law as it pertains to gender identity," Burnham told local news outlet Maine Public following President Donald Trump's Feb. 5 executive order.
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In a statement to Fox News Digital, Burnham reiterated that MPA would be "instructing all schools in Maine to follow the Maine Human Rights Act," which he said was in accordance with a Jan. 21 notice from the Department of Education. "The staff at the MPA will closely monitor any updates from federal and state authorities regarding the potential impact of the president's executive order on high school sports participation and adjust its policy accordingly."
While the NCAA revised its guidelines around transgender participation in sports, Maine is one of a handful of states that have said they will continue to allow transgender women to compete on women's sports teams in accordance with its state laws.
Trump's executive order instructed all federal agencies to review grants, programs and policies that fail to comply with the administration's efforts to end "male competitive participation in women's sports… as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth." The order also instructs strict Title IX enforcement against any educational institutions or athletic associations that do not comply, and demands federal assistance be taken away in such cases.
"Many sport-specific governing bodies have no official position or requirements regarding trans-identifying athletes. Others allow men to compete in women's categories if these men reduce the testosterone in their bodies below certain levels or provide documentation of 'sincerely held' gender identity," Trump's executive order states. "These policies are unfair to female athletes and do not protect female safety."
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Just like Maine, the governing bodies for youth sports in both Minnesota and California have said determination regarding the eligibility of transgender athletes is controlled by state human rights statutes. Meanwhile, in Michigan, the state's governing body for youth sports said it is seeking further clarification on potential conflicts between Trump's executive order and state law.
Sarah Perry, a civil rights attorney who has extensive experience litigating Title IX issues, said that in addition to Trump's executive order, these state athletic associations are also flouting directives from the Department of Education and previously established precedent from a slew of cases that challenged former President Joe Biden's Title IX regulations allowing athletic eligibility to be determined by one's preferred gender identity.
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"Within six weeks [after Biden's Title IX ruling] we had 11 federal lawsuits brought by 26 states, in addition to a handful of others - the Biden administration has lost every time," Perry pointed out. "The most damning of their losses was the one out of the Eastern District of Kentucky, which just came out last month, and that was not just enjoining the rule, but vacating the rule. In other words, sending it literally to the trash heap as though it had never been made."
Perry noted that besides the obvious risk of losing funding, these states also open themselves up to federal Title IX investigations, something she said could potentially force them to comply with Trump's demands.
"The executive order of women's sports specifically says that the secretary of education is going to convene, in conjunction with Attorney General Pam Bondi, all affirmative action in all the states to make sure that there is compliance, and for those schools that do not comply, to prioritize first Title IX legal enforcement actions against those educational institutions, including athletic associations, that are composed of or governed by those particular schools," Perry said.
"They're welcome to follow state law in light of contrary federal law," Perry continued. "But my guess is, the minute that these investigations and the purse strings start to close, this is going to be a completely different story in a short period of time."
