DOE launches Title IX investigation into Maine after Trump, governor’s clash over trans athletes

The United States Department of Education has launched Title IX investigations into Maine’s DOE and a state school district for allegedly ignoring President Donald Trump’s executive order on transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports.

Maine joins California and Minnesota as states to be investigated for allegedly continuing to allow biological males to compete against biological females.

“Today the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent a letter to the Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin announcing that OCR is initiating a directed investigation of the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) amid allegations that it continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ interscholastic athletics and that it has denied female athletes female-only intimate facilities, thereby violating federal antidiscrimination law,” the USDOE said in a press release Friday. 

“The letter also notifies MDOE that OCR is launching an investigation into Maine School Administrative District #51 (MSAD #51), after it was reported that Greely High School, a school under its jurisdiction, is continuing to allow at least one male student to compete in girls’ categories.”

Trump and Maine’s governor, Janet Mills, clashed over transgender women in sports on Friday, with Trump telling her at the White House that she must follow his executive order, or “you’re not going to get any federal funding,” to which she replied, “We’ll see you in court.” 

“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” Mills said, before Trump said, “Well, we are the federal law,” and “you better do it, you better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.

TRUMP VOWS TO CUT OFF FEDERAL FUNDING TO MAINE OVER REFUSAL TO COMPLY WITH ‘NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS’ ORDER

Mills released a statement on Friday, saying, “The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the President’s threats.” 

Trump vowed on Thursday to not give Maine any federal money if the state continues to allow biological males to compete in girls’ and women’s athletics.

“They are still saying, ‘We want men to play in women’s sports,’ and I cannot believe that they’re doing that. . . . So, we’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever, until they clean that up,” Trump said.

Acting assistant secretary for civil rights Craig Trainor added as part of the DOE’s announcement, “Maine would have you believe that it has no choice in how it treats women and girls in athletics – that is, that it must follow its state laws and allow male athletes to compete against women and girls. Let me be clear: If Maine wants to continue to receive federal funds from the Education Department, it has to follow Title IX. If it wants to forgo federal funds and continue to trample the rights of its young female athletes, that, too, is its choice. OCR will do everything in its power to ensure taxpayers are not funding blatant civil rights violators.” 

The USDOE is also investigating San Jose State, UPenn and a Massachusetts high school. Trans athletes Blaire Fleming and Lia Thomas starred for SJSU and the Ivy League school, respectively, with Thomas winning an NCAA Division I title in 2022.

Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order on Feb. 5.

Fox News’ Greg Norman and Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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