A Maine politician is taking a stand against a policy she believes directly contradicts President Donald Trump’s efforts to defend women’s sports.
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State Rep. Laurel Libby, a Republican, told CBN News the Maine Principal’s Association (MPA), Maine’s governing sports body, is openly flouting Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order titled “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
Trump’s proclamation calls it “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls” for biological men to take part in female sports.
“Following President Trump’s executive order, the Maine Principal’s Association came out and said they were not going to abide by that — that they were still going to allow biological males to participate in girls’ sports,” Libby said.
Mike Burnham, executive director of the MPA, reportedly said in a statement that there is a clash between Trump’s order and state law.
“The executive order and our Maine state Human Rights Act are in conflict, and the Maine Principal’s Association will continue to follow state law as it pertains to gender identity,” he said.
Trump’s order, which made headlines earlier this month, clearly takes a definitive position against such scenarios.
“It is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,” the text reads, in part. “It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
Already, Maine is said to be ignoring these rules. Libby said the state held a championship for indoor track this week and claimed a biological male was allowed to take place in the girls’ pole vault — something that motivated her to speak out on the matter.
“He actually won the state championship just this past Monday, displacing females, displacing girls from the podium as he won that,” Libby said. “And, in fact, his jump enabled that team to win the entire event by one point.”
She said this is not a new issue in Maine, with politicians grappling in recent years over how to handle the intersection of transgender issues and sports. When Libby learned the MPA planned to push back on Trump’s executive order — and that a biological boy competed and won — she took to social media Feb. 17 and her post on the matter, which included a photo of the purported winner, went viral.
The reaction to Libby’s advocacy against this win and the issue more broadly has been divided.
“I’ve heard from Maine folks on both sides of the issue,” she said. “I’ve heard folks … saying, ‘Thank you so much for speaking up. Our girls deserve to have a fair and level playing field.’ I’ve also heard from folks who are unhappy about my post.”
Libby continued, “This is a public event that this individual has chosen to take part in, and the results are public, and this is public information.”
She said Democrats have asked her to take down the post, but she has no plans to comply.
“Our girls deserve folks standing up and advocating for a fair and level playing field,” Libby said. “And we’ll have legislation coming up this session in the State House to discuss this topic of if boys should be allowed to play in girls’ sports here in Maine, and so there’s going to be plenty of opportunity for folks to stand up and make their voices heard.”
Ultimately, Libby believes many people simply don’t realize they’re on the wrong side of the issue, implementing policies and procedures that put biological women at a disadvantage. And despite the debate, the politician plans to continue speaking out.
“Maine girls need to know that folks are standing up for them and are willing to advocate on their behalf,” Libby said. “I think we haven’t seen that enough in the past and we need to make sure that they understand it’s safe to speak up and say that they’re not OK with this.”
She continued, “These are kids who have worked really hard to become accomplished in the sport that they’ve chosen, and it is not fair. And we need grownups to be the grownups in the room and to stand up and say, ‘This is not right, and we’ll stand there for you.'”
Trump has since threatened to cut off federal funding to Maine if the state defies his order.
“I heard men are still playing in Maine,” the president said Monday. “I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to give them any federal money. They are still saying, ‘We want men to play in women’s sports’ and I can not believe that they’re doing that… So we’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever, until they clean that up.”
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