AG Bondi takes Maine to court over transgender athletes
The ongoing war to prohibit biological men from competing in women's sports has reached new heights, as U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced her office will be taking Maine to court over the matter.
'Maine's leadership has refused to comply at every turn, so now we have no other choice. We are taking them to court,' Bondi said at a press conference, Wednesday.
The federal government is seeking both an injunction to get Maine to comply and to return titles 'to the young women who rightfully won these sports.'
Bondi added, 'And we are also considering whether to retroactively pull all the funding that they have received for not complying in the past.'
Bondi referenced a recent incident from February of this year where a transgender competitor going by the name 'Katie' won the Class B girls state championship in pole vaulting for Cumberland's Greely High School.
The student had previously competed on the men's high school team 'as a mid-level athlete,' reported The Maine Wire. The publication added that Katie's score would have placed the athlete 10th in the boys competition.
'He beat every other girl by a significant margin. That qualified him for regional championships. That took a spot away from a young woman in women's sports,' Bondi said at the press conference.
Bondi then read a letter from Aaron Frey, Maine's attorney general, addressed to the Department of Education, refusing to comply with the U.S. attorney general's request to prohibit biological men from competing in women's sports.
'We will not sign the resolution agreement. We do not have revisions or a counter proposal. We agree we are at an impasse. Nothing in Title IX or its implementing regulations prohibit schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls' and women's sports teams,' Bondi read.
'Well they must not be reading the same Title IX that we're reading,' she said.
Bondi continued, 'I don't care if it's one, I don't care if it's two, I don't care if it's 100 — it's going to stop, and it's going to stop in every single state."
Disagreements over transgender issues between Maine and the federal government do not end with women's sports. The Justice Department also pulled $1.5 million in grants from Maine's Corrections Department for allowing a biological man to be sentenced to and reside in a women's prison, per The New York Times.
'We don't want to be suing people,' Bondi said. 'We want them to comply with the law, and that's what we're doing. We have given them (Maine) opportunity ... over and over again.'
Bondi added that the Department of Education and the HHS met with Maine representatives multiple times in person 'and got nowhere,' so the lawsuit is 'because they refused to protect young women in their state.'
Bondi said her office decided to pull the million and a half dollars in grants 'because we saw they allowed a 6'1″, 245 (lbs) giant man who had violently murdered his parents with a knife and the family dog, serving life in prison."
'And he chose to identify as a woman,' Bondi said. 'So guess where he's being held. In a female prison in Maine. So therefore, we don't want to give any more money to the department of corrections in Maine if that's how they're going to act.'
A reporter asked Bondi if her office planned on taking any other states to court as well.
Bondi mentioned active investigations in Minnesota and California. 'We have reached out to them, we have sent them letters,' she said. 'We are in the same posture we were in the beginning here with Maine. So let's see what they do. Let's see if they comply.'
'We don't want to sue anyone,' Bondi continued. 'We just want you to comply with federal law and protect girls. But yes, we are fully prepared to sue them and others that we will be looking at as well.'
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