President Trump is threatening to withhold federal funds from Maine if it continues allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports in defiance of a recent executive order.
“I signed really historic orders to get critical race theory and transgender ideology out of the schools and out of our military. It’s all going out. It’s no longer,” Trump said Thursday evening in remarks at the Republican Governor’s Association meeting in Washington.
“I heard men are still playing in Maine. Is anybody here from Maine?” Trump said. “Well, 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 cannot believe that they’re doing that. So, we’re not going to give them any federal funding whatsoever until they clean that up.”
An executive order Trump signed on Feb. 5 — one of more than 70 issued during his first month back in office — intends to broadly prevent transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports. The order could also complicate the nation’s role as host of the next Summer Olympics because it targets visas for transgender female athletes from abroad.
The NCAA, responsible for intercollegiate athletics at more than 1,000 colleges and universities nationwide, barred transgender athletes from women’s college sports because of Trump’s order. The organization’s president, Charlie Baker, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, previously told a Senate panel that fewer than 10 trans athletes are competing at NCAA member schools.
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But some state athletic associations, including the Maine Principal’s Association, the state’s governing body for high school sports, said it would not comply with Trump’s order, which conflicts with state anti-discrimination laws that include protections for transgender people.
“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,” Mike Burnham, the organization’s executive director, told Maine Public Radio this month.
The Education Department has said it is investigating athletic associations in California and Minnesota over their refusal to follow Trump’s order.
Trump’s comments at the Republican Governor’s Association meeting come after a Maine state lawmaker criticized a transgender high school athlete on her Facebook page, a move that drew swift criticism from Democratic colleagues, including Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D).
The lawmaker, Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby, has called for Maine schools that allow trans athletes to compete in girls’ sports to lose their government funding.
“I think that’s really the only thing that will ensure we have biological females competing in sports against other biological females,” Libby told conservative radio host Todd Starnes on his show this week. “I don’t think that the Democratic majority is going to listen to reason until money talks, and that includes the federal funding getting yanked for Maine schools.”
In a statement, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, said the state “will not be intimidated” by Trump’s threat to withhold its federal funds.
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“If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children from the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides,” she said.
“It is disturbing that President Trump would use children as pawns in advancing his political agenda,” said Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey (D).
“Any attempt by the President to cut federal funding in Maine unless transgender athletes are restricted from playing sports would be illegal and in direct violation of court orders. Fortunately, though, the rule of law still applies in this county, and I will do everything in my power to defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the President to bully and threaten us.”
