The Trump administration on Wednesday warned Maine that it will face consequences if it continues to flout President Donald Trump’s executive order barring males from playing on female sports teams.
“What HHS is asking of the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association, and Greely High School is simple – protect female athletes’ rights. Girls deserve girls-only sports without male competitors,” Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) acting director Anthony Archeval said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“And if Maine won’t come to the table to voluntarily comply with Title IX, HHS will enforce Title IX to the fullest extent permitted by the law,” he added.
His comment comes after the OCR on Monday announced the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association, and Greely High School have each violated Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities receiving federal funding.
The OCR launched its compliance review after a transgender-identifying boy claimed the victory in the Maine Class B championship for the Greely High School girls’ track and field team in February. The high school boy was allowed to perform on the girls’ team, despite Trump’s executive order barring males from participating on female sports teams. Following Trump’s order, Maine officials publicly said they would not comply with the order, siding with transgender-identifying males over women and girls.
The OCR sent a determination letter to the three entities offers them the opportunity to voluntarily commit within ten days to comply with Title IX “or risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for appropriate action.”
After the OCR’s announcement on Monday, the Maine Principals’ Association issued a response in a statement to the outlet, doubling down on its support of males in female sports.
“The alleged violation is due to MPA’s policy which is a direct result of the Maine Human Rights Acts mandate that athletes be allowed to participate on the teams which align with their gender identity. MPA’s policy is consistent with Maine State Law,” the association said.
“The determination that MPA has violated Title IX first requires that MPA be beholden to Title IX due to receiving direct or indirect funding from the federal government,” the association continued. “In short, a small portion of our funding comes from 151 member schools who receive the majority of their funding from local property taxes and the state. The vast majority of our funding comes from ticket sales, sponsorships, streaming, television and other contracts. Therefore, it is MPA’s position that HHS does not have Title IX jurisdiction over MPA.”
The MPA told the outlet that it expects the subject to be discussed in the Maine legislature and that it “looks forward to a robust debate.”
“We urge all parties to this issue to air their questions, concerns, thoughts or opinions where they belong; in respectful debate in public hearings on the bills addressing this issue,” the statement read.”As always, we urge members of the public to keep this debate among adults and let our kids be kids. Please do not single any of our student athletes out, they are only abiding by the policy that the Maine Human Rights Act mandates.”
President Trump’s executive order on “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” was created to protect female student athletes from having “to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males.” The order also mandates each federal department to “review grants to education programs and, where appropriate, rescind funding to programs that fail to comply with the policy established in this order,” which protects women “as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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