In a major victory for Maine conservatives, many of the state’s schools are defying their woke governor and banning transgender athletes from girls’ sports teams, a move that stands in direct opposition to Gov. Janet Mills, who has been attempting to assert her leftist, pro-trans agenda in the state’s schools.
For context, on May 6, 2025, the board of directors for Maine’s Region School Unit (RSU) No. 24 rescinded a policy that permitted trans athletes to play on girls’ sports teams with a 7-1 vote. According to press accounts, the vote did away with a policy that allowed students to join teams based on the gender identity that they “asserted at school.”
In a statement to Fox News, Superintendent Michael Eastman, who oversees RSU No. 24, explained that the schools within the district will stop following the policy right away, explaining, “This change will take place immediately. We appreciate the turnout last evening and thank those residents who addressed the board with their thoughts regarding the policy.”
In addition, according to press accounts, Maine’s RSU No. 70 made a similar decision last month, with the district’s Superintendent, Tyler Putnam, telling Fox News that the vote obligates him to change the district’s policies, saying, “The motion directs me to rewrite our policies to adhere to the motion.”
Continuing, Superintendent Putnam elaborated on the impact of the decision, saying, “It is my interpretation that the school board will be looking to approve policies that align biological sex to their specific athletic teams, too, i.e., biological males will be playing with only other biological males, and the same for biological females. These policies will need to be approved by the policy committee and the board once rewritten.”
The new rulings from several Maine school districts came shortly after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Department of Justice had sued the state of Maine over the transgender sports issue. When AG Bondi announced the lawsuit to the press, she declared, “The state of Maine is discriminating against women by failing to protect women in women’s sports. Pretty basic stuff. This is a violation of Title IX. The Department of Justice will not sit by when women are discriminated against in sports.”
Furthermore, AG Bondi expressed empathy for the members of girls’ sports teams in Maine who have been negatively affected by the state’s lax transgender policies. Bondi explained, “I’ve met many of these women throughout the past weeks and months, and what they have been through is horrific. We have exhausted every other remedy. We tried to get Maine to comply…we don’t like standing up here and filing lawsuits.”
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In response to the DOJ’s lawsuit, Maine’s Gov. Janet Mills vehemently pushed back, telling ABC News, “My Administration and Maine’s Attorney General will vigorously defend our state against the action announced today from the Department of Justice.” In another interview with WGME, she downplayed the issue, adding, “Because there are two, maybe two, trans athletes competing in Maine schools right now, they decided to shut off funding for the school nutrition program, the school lunch program, entirely.”
Watch AG Bondi announce the lawsuit against Maine:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video