Latest news with #CassidyCarlisle
Fox News
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Teen calls Maine's stance on women's sports 'heartbreaking' as DOJ announces lawsuit
A high school athlete in Maine is speaking out against state policies that allow transgender athletes to compete in women's sports. Cassidy Carlisle, a cross-country skier, says she's witnessed the effects of such policies firsthand. She recalled an incident from middle school when she encountered a transgender student in the girls' locker room. "As a 13-year-old girl, when you walk in the locker room and see a biological male standing there, that's something you can't put into words," Carlisle said on "America Reports" Wednesday. "I knew something was wrong in that moment." Carlisle says she reported the incident to school administrators at the time, but the experience stuck with her. Now, she's speaking publicly to advocate for what she calls fairness and safety for female athletes. "It doesn't matter if it's one or 100, you're taking opportunities away from females. And that's not right," she said. Carlisle's comments come as the U.S. Department of Justice announced a lawsuit against the state of Maine. The suit alleges the state is violating Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls' sports, defying an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at restricting such participation. "The Department of Justice will not sit by when women are discriminated against in sports," said Attorney General Pam Bondi at a press conference Wednesday. Maine Governor Janet Mills responded strongly to the lawsuit, defending the state's position. "Today is the latest, expected salvo in an unprecedented campaign to pressure the State of Maine to ignore the Constitution and abandon the rule of law," Mills said in a written statement. "This matter has never been about school sports or the protection of women and girls, as has been claimed, it is about states' rights and defending the rule of law against a federal government bent on imposing its will, instead of upholding the law." "Let today serve as warning to all states: Maine might be among the first to draw the ire of the Federal government in this way, but we will not be the last," she added. Carlisle, however, pushed back on the governor's claim, saying the issue is ultimately about protecting young women. "It's all about girl athletes. And if it's not, the fact that you are willing to fight that fight and put your female athletes at jeopardy is heartbreaking," she said. Carlisle says she and other activists aren't speaking out about this issue for them, but for future female athletes. "You know it's not about me," said Carlisle. "It's about the generations to come and that we're protecting them." The Justice Department argues Maine's policies violate federal anti-discrimination law by requiring girls to compete against boys in some athletic events. An investigation by Secretary of Education Linda McMahon's department concluded Maine was in violation of Title IX. That investigation led to the matter being referred to the DOJ. The lawsuit follows a separate legal battle between Maine and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which had frozen federal funding over the state's transgender athlete policy. Maine sued the USDA, accusing it of withholding funds that support meals at schools, childcare centers, and programs for disabled adults. A federal judge has since ordered the funding to be restored. The DOJ's latest action also stems from a high-profile clash in February between President Trump and Governor Mills at a White House meeting. Their dispute over transgender athletes ended with both sides declaring, "See you in court."
Fox News
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Maine high school athlete sends message to governor amid trans-athlete policy controversy
Maine high school athlete Cassidy Carlisle expounded on her message to Gov. Janet Mills as the state continued to thumb its nose as President Donald Trump and maintain its transgender-athlete policies in girls' and women's sports. Carlisle opened up to Fox News Digital last week about how the state's transgender policies affected her childhood, revealing she was changing in front of a transgender student for gym class while in middle school. Carlisle, now a high school senior, has become a voice for change in her state. She met with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi last month and shared her story about having to compete against transgender athletes in sports. She also spoke in front of the Maine State Capitol earlier this month as hundreds protested against the gender-inclusion policies. She appeared on "Fox & Friends" on Monday and explained further what her message to Mills was. "My message to the governor was just to think about all of us women in your state," she said. "If she can genuinely look at us and say I'm not gonna fight for you, then, you know, that's really heartbreaking because we had to fight a long time for her to have the position that she has and a lot of women fought hard for her. So, for her to look at all of us and say I'm not gonna fight for you is heartbreaking." Carlisle added that she knew something was wrong when she was first exposed to the state's transgender policies. However, she said she did not know at the time how to speak up. "I think it's one of those things, when it happens, you don't know what to do, but you definitely know something is wrong," she said. I was 13 years old that I know something was wrong, but I didn't know what to do. "I didn't have the platform to speak, and I think that makes it really hard because you feel like you don't have a voice, but that's not true. And I hope that by speaking up that a lot of younger people know that it's OK to speak up." Carlisle wrote in an op-ed on Fox News Digital describing how she was worried for the future of women's sports if the policies continued. "I truly fear for the future of women's sports if states like my own continue in this direction. Girls of all ages are watching women be erased from sports – they can no longer have confidence that their effort and dedication will be honored with a fair shot against their physical equals," she wrote. "We have to win this battle for them. This is a competition we cannot lose." The Trump administration has given Maine until Thursday to comply with its executive order to keep biological males from women's sports or risk losing federal funding to its public schools. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Fox News
22-03-2025
- Fox News
Maine girl involved in trans athlete battle reveals how state's policies hurt her childhood and sports career
Cassidy Carlisle was in seventh grade, she said, when had to change in the same locker room as a transgender student. During a gym class at Presque Isle Middle School in northern Maine six years ago, she said, she walked into the locker room to find a biological male who would change with her and other girls. She alleges she was told by administrators that if she tried to avoid changing with the trans student, she would risk being late to class. "That was really my first experience in just knowing that something isn't right, but not knowing what to do with that," Carlisle told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. Fox News Digital has reached out to Presque Isle Middle School for comment. Gender identity was first included in the Maine Human Rights Act as part of the definition of sexual orientation in 2005. In 2021, the law was amended to add gender identity as its own protected class, joining other protected classes such as sex, sexual orientation, disability, race, color and religion. The law specifically says that denying a person equal opportunity in athletic programs is education discrimination. The transgender student was only in the girls locker room for about a week, Carlisle claims, before mysteriously vanishing. But the memory of the experience stuck with her. The memory especially stuck with her in her junior year of high school, when she found out she would be competing with a trans athlete on the state Nordic skiing team. It was an athlete with whom she was familiar. She had already lost to the trans athlete in cross-country competitions in previous years. When her father told her she would have to face the athlete again in skiing, Carlisle didn't believe it was happening. "I was like, 'Oh, that's only something I kind of hear about on the news. … It's not going to happen to me," Cassidy recalled. But it did happen to her. "The defeat that comes with that in that moment is heartbreaking," Carlisle said. "I'm just in shock in a way. I didn't believe it. … I didn't think it was happening to me." As a child, Carlisle quit her co-ed hockey team specifically because she felt she "couldn't keep up" with the boys. Then, even after committing to a girls-only sport, she couldn't escape the physical disadvantage that came with facing biological males. On top of the anxiety of the situation, Carlisle felt like she couldn't speak out about it. "I stayed silent for a while," Carlisle said. "It's very hard to speak up if you don't have a platform to do it on. … Backlash is a huge thing. I'm a high school student. No high school student wants to be hurt or yelled at or said mean comments by people. And the reality of it, with the state that I live in, that could very much happen." What she could do was vote in the November election. As a first-time voter, she cast her ballot with the issue of trans athletes in girls sports at the forefront. A national exit poll conducted by the Concerned Women for America legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of "Donald Trump's opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls and women's sports and of transgender boys and men using girls and women's bathrooms" as important to them. And 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was "very important." When Republican Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby spoke out earlier this year against another trans athlete who won a girls pole vault competition in February, Carlisle suddenly gained an opportunity to influence the issue. Libby's social media post identifying the trans athlete thrust the entire state into an ongoing culture war. It became ground zero for a national battle over the issue waged by the Trump administration against several Democrat-controlled states like Maine after Trump signed an executive order to address the issue Feb. 5. All of a sudden, thousands of people in Maine were speaking out against the state's laws that enable trans inclusion in girls sports and locker rooms, all with the backing of the president. So Carlisle joined in. On Feb. 27, Carlisle made a trip to the White House with several other current and former female athletes who have been affected by trans inclusion, including Payton McNabb and Selina Soule. There, they met with Attorney General Pam Bondi and several other state attorneys general and shared their stories. Carlisle couldn't help but notice an absence at the White House that day, "None of our AGs were there from our state," Carlisle said. So, when Carlisle returned to her state, she took matters into her own hands. Last weekend, she delivered a speech in front of the Maine Capitol, speaking to hundreds of other residents there to protest Gov. Janet Mills for her continued enabling of trans athletes in girls sports. It was the second protest against Mills outside the Capitol in a month after the March on Mills rally March 1. The Trump administration is taking aggressive measures to get the state to adhere to the wishes of Carlisle and other residents who want females protected from trans inclusion. On March 17, the Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced that if found the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals' Association and Greely High School in violation of Title IX for continuing to enable trans inclusion in girls sports. In the announcement, the department said Maine had 10 days to correct its policies through a signed agreement or risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for appropriate action. Trump has already shown a willingness to cut federal funding to enforce these policies. He paused $175 million in funding to the University of Pennsylvania and temporarily paused funding to the University of Maine System last week until a review had found the system was in full compliance with Trump's orders. The deadline for the rest of Maine to comply is coming up within the week. "I really hope that Maine complies because our schools need the federal funding, and we can't risk losing that," Carlisle said. "It would really really hurt our state to lose that federal funding. So, I hope our government can get it together." Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
