The Maine Human Rights Commission has filed a lawsuit against several districts in the state for discrimination against transgender students, setting up a major Title IX legal battle in the Pine Tree State.
Here's more from Maine Public:
The Maine Human Rights Commission filed a lawsuit Monday in Kennebec County Superior Court against five school districts for discrimination against transgender students. The suit alleges the districts have enacted policies that treat gender non-conforming students differently and create a hostile environment.
The school districts named in the complaint are MSAD 70 in Hodgdon, RSU 24 in Sullivan, RSU 73 in Livermore Falls, and the Baileyville and Richmond School Departments.
They've adopted policies this year that block students from accessing sports, extracurricular activities, and school facilities, such as bathrooms and locker rooms, according to their gender identity.
One district not yet involved in the suit is St. George School District. A few days ago, Fox News reported that parents in the small town were fighting back after a third grade boy tried to join the girls' recreational basketball team.
"Initially, we were concerned," Katy Miller, whose daughter played on the basketball team, told Fox News Digital. "We talked to our daughters [and] kind of got a read from them on how they felt. And we were all in agreement that we were just not on board with this."
At a Nov. 10 Town of St. George Select Board meeting, Miller and other parents made their case to stop the biological boy, who identifies as a girl, from competing with the girls. The games are played in a local school gym, making the situation a town matter.
Colin Hurd, an attorney from the Maine Human Rights Commission, an independent state agency that enforces the Maine Human Rights Act, said that under Maine law, it is illegal for a municipality to deny services — in this case recreational basketball — to anyone based on gender identity. It is also illegal in Maine to prevent anyone from using a public restroom or locker room that "most closely aligns with their gender identity."
At that November 10 meeting, the board voted 3-2 in favor of letting the boy join the girls' team and parents responded by creating a private league for their daughters. The district is set to take up the issue soon, and it's likely they'll be added to this lawsuit if they vote to protect girls.
Transgender rights have been a hot-button issue in Maine and were brought to the public eye after a confrontation between Maine's Democratic Governor Janet Mills and President Trump. Mills told the President she would "see [him] in court" after the federal government launched a Title IX investigation into the state's transgender policies.
Townhall spoke with Maine Republican State Rep. Laurel Libby, who launched Lead Maine back in November, about the Human Rights Commission lawsuits.
Maine law is not as cut-and-dried as Colin Hurd of the Human Rights Commission claims. "The Maine Human Rights Act protects sex, and so by choosing to enforce protections by gender identity, they're actively discriminating against Maine girls," Libby said.
She also pointed out a contradiction in the Human Rights Act. "The Maine Human Rights Act was amended to include not only protections from discrimination by sex, but by gender identity — those are in conflict with one another in this context," Libby said.
Early last year, the Biden administration attempted a rewrite of Title IX to include gender identity as a protected class (and punish women and girls who object):
The Biden administration will stop at nothing to erase women and girls in the name of “inclusion” for individuals who believe they are “transgender.”
On Friday, the Biden administration released new rules to protect LGBTQ+ individuals under the federal civil rights legislation Title IX. Title IX went into effect in 1972 to protect sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding.
Going forward, the basis of “sex” now encompasses the concept of “gender identity.”
“These regulations make it crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights,” Miguel Cardona, Biden’s education secretary, said in a call with reporters from The New York Times on Thursday.
In a video posted to X, Cardona claimed that these new rules built upon the legacy of Title IX.
“This final regulation strengthens and restores vital protections against sex discrimination, including sexual harrassment. It also protects students against discrimination based on pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation and gender identity,” he said in the video.
Townhall asked Libby if the Maine Human Rights Commission was acting under that rewrite of Title IX, one that's been rejected by the courts.
"Not only are they using the BIden translation of Title IX, they’re picking and choosing," Libby said.
Libby says this issue will absolutely have to be decided by the courts because Maine Democrats have no interest in protecting girls in the state. "This is going to be settledi n the courts whether its in 2026 or 2030 as long as Maine has a Democrat majority," she said. Libby said there's "certainly potential" to unseat Maine's Democratic majority. "We need one chamber to be able to stop the radical agenda," she added.
This also emphasized how important it is for national Republicans to hold the House and Senate in the 2026 midterms, given the radical Leftists running to unseat Susan Collins in Maine.
"They've abdicated their responsibility," she said of state Democrats, including Governor Mills. But she's glad to see parents standing up for their girls.
"Maine parents are seeing that state leadership refuses to stand up and uphold their daughters' rights. It is in their hands. Maine parents are taking action around their state and encouraging school boards to stand up and protect their girls where state leadership refuses to do so," Libby said.
The mission of Libby's Lead Maine organization is exactly this sort of grassroots, voter-driven involvement in politics. "As we work to engage and empower people through Lead Maine," Libby said, "this includes taking back the statehouse and ensuring we have peopel in power who uphold our principles."
"The power to change our states is in the hands of Maine people and I'm excited to see Maine parents standing up and advocating for our girls' rights," Libby said. "Our government and our Democrat majority have refused to align with Title IX. It's up to individual school districts to pass policies to protect our girls and ensure they have a safe, fair, and level playing field.
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