AUGUSTA — Supporters of a citizen initiative to ban transgender girls from girls’ sports teams turned in thousands of signatures Monday to call for a public vote on the issue in November.
Protect Girls Sports in Maine “far exceeded” the nearly 68,000 signatures needed to make the ballot, Leyland Streiff, the lead organizer said during a State House news conference.
“We will likely be the first state where voters can protect female sports at the ballot box this November,” he said. “We are going to pave the way for the rest of this nation.”
Across the country, laws in 27 states ban transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
Opponents of the ballot measure, which includes EqualityMaine, GLAD Law and the Maine Women’s Lobby, said in a statement that the initiative is being largely funded by billionaires Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, who own a private shipping and packaging supply company.
“This isn’t a grassroots campaign,” said David Farmer, a spokesman for opponents. “This is a cynical attempt by one of the richest people in the world to manipulate voters in hopes of influencing the U.S. Senate race, the race for governor and the races for Congress.”
Farmer criticized the initiative as “poorly written” and a “one-size fits all approach to sports participation and bathrooms that will increase bullying and harassment and cost local schools millions of dollars for construction and litigation.”
Streiff pushed back on the assertion that the initiative is part of a national effort.
“There are of course people across the entire country that feel the same as us, but this is a Maine grown initiative and these are Mainers that are out there that have been collecting petitions,” he said.
Initiative supporter Sofia Pride, a freshman at the University of Maine at Orono, said as a high schooler she was captain of her swim team. She believes the initiative is designed to ensure fair competition for girls.
“This is a huge win for female athletes,” she said. “I’ve worked with and spoken to girls who were afraid to say how they felt. Girls who were told that if they questioned fairness, something must be wrong with them. Or that speaking up made them unkind or uneducated.”
The issue rose to national prominence in February when President Donald Trump called out Maine for its policy of allowing transgender girls to participate on girls’ sports teams.
Gov. Janet Mills told the president she would see him in court over the issue, insisting that Maine is following state and federal law when it comes to transgender rights.
Since then, the Maine Human Rights Commission has filed suit against seven local school districts that have voted to ban transgender girls from girls’ sports teams.
A March poll showed 64% of Maine residents believe transgender female athletes should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports, according to the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.
The proposed citizen initiative requires schools to designate all sports teams as male, female or co-ed. It defines sex as a person’s status at birth. It also requires public schools to maintain separate restrooms, locker rooms and shower rooms for girls and boys.
In addition, it allows students who are “deprived of an athletic opportunity” or injured by a transgender athlete to file a lawsuit.
Majority Democrats in the Legislature defeated eight bills last year that EqualityMaine described as “anti-trans,” including measures similar to the citizen initiative.
Streiff described the initiative as a commonsense measure. He urged lawmakers to let the initiative go straight to the ballot without offering a competing measure.
“Let democracy play out, let the voters decide,” he said. “Let this issue go to the November ballot and let the voters prove that Maine wants to protect female sports once and for all.”