09-05-2025
Emotional debate on transgender rights, girls sports draws hundreds to Maine State House
May 8—AUGUSTA — The debate over transgender athletes competing in girls sports drew hundreds to the Maine State House Thursday for a daylong series of public hearings on proposals to restrict participation and roll back gender identity protections in the state's antidiscrimination law.
Bills taken up by the Judiciary Committee would cut state funding to schools that allow transgender athletes to participate in girls sports, require sports teams to be either male, female or coed, and prevent schools from allowing students to use restrooms that don't correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth.
One bill would revise the Maine Human Rights Act to remove parts of the law that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. School districts and the governing body of high school sports in Maine cite the law as why they allow students to participate in sports in a way that affirms their identity.
The hearings come after the Trump administration sued Maine last month for allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls sports, saying it violates a federal law protecting women from discrimination in education. The administration also has moved to cut off federal funding to the state until it bans trans athletes, although the state has so far fended off any cuts in court.
Two transgender athletes in Maine have attracted scrutiny amidst the national attention, although it's unknown how many trans students are participating statewide. Soren Stark-Chessa, a high school junior from Falmouth, spoke about her experience as a transgender cross-country and track athlete while testifying against the bills Thursday.
"When I realized I was trans and started running on the girls team, my perspective underwent a huge shift," Stark-Chessa said. "Now, I wasn't just competing as a way to manage stress. I was being open about who I was and I was able to form connections and bonds through this wonderful activity."
"In short, my world went from black and white to vibrant color when I was able to exist as my true self," she added.
The Maine Principals' Association, the nonprofit that oversees high school athletic competitions in Maine, also weighed in on the bills Thursday, testifying neither for not against them. The MPA adopted the policy allowing trans athletes, which state officials say is consistent with the state's antidiscrimination law.
Jared Bornstein, a representative of the MPA, said the group will follow whatever laws the state or federal government establish. But he also asked the committee to make the law "fully one or the other and avoid the middle ground," such as by allowing the MPA to decide transgender athlete participation on a case-by-case basis.
"It would be our preference to have either fully allowing or fully disallowing," Bornstein said.
BILL SUPPORTERS: IT'S ABOUT FAIRNESS
The bills heard Thursday were submitted prior to the Trump administration's lawsuit, although the national attention has intensified debate at the State House. All of the proposals are from Republican lawmakers.
Rep. Elizabeth Caruso, R-Caratunk, said Thursday that her bill, LD 868, requiring school sports teams to be designated as male, female or coed, and prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in girls' sports, would bring Maine into compliance with Trump's executive order on the issue and prevent a loss of federal funding.
Caruso's bill also would require schools to designate restrooms and changing rooms for use by males or females only, based on sex assigned at birth.
"The heart behind this bill is to provide safety, fairness, privacy and a fair playing field where all students have the opportunity to participate in sports," Caruso said.
She said the bill isn't about discriminating against transgender students.
"Every athlete can still play and use private spaces," she said. "But we have to have parameters for what that is. Every athlete will have a choice of two teams to play on: the team of their biological sex or a co-ed or mixed team."
Two other bills also heard Thursday, LD 1134 and LD 233, would prohibit schools that receive state funding from allowing transgender athletes to participate in girls' sports.
Supporters of the bills argue that transgender girls have physical advantages and that allowing them to participate in girls' sports puts other girls at a disadvantage, causing them to lose first-place medals and podium spots, and potentially get overlooked by college coaches.
Bianca Wright, a 17-year-old student from Benton, told the committee that her girls basketball team played a game last winter against a co-ed team that was mostly boys. The girls felt uncomfortable and one girl ended up sitting out the game after she was elbowed in the face, Wright said. They also lost.
"The reason I tell you this is to give you an example of what it would look like if men continue to play against women," Wright said. "I feel men should not be able to compete in women's sports for many reasons. They are physically built differently, they play more aggressively. ... For all the girls who worked hard all year, it's disappointing to lose to a biological male."
OPPONENTS: 'TRANS KIDS JUST WANT TO BE ACCEPTED'
Opponents — and some lawmakers — raised questions about how schools would enforce policies prohibiting transgender athletes from participating. Opponents also said the bills seek to address something that isn't really a problem while also perpetuating harmful narratives about transgender people.
"These proposals target transgender students — a small, vulnerable group of young people who already face significantly higher rates of bullying, homelessness and suicide," said Beth Lambert, a parent from Fairfield who has also worked as a teacher and school administrator.
She questioned how schools would figure out which students are transgender.
"Will there be forms to fill out?" Lambert asked. "Investigations to open? If a student is accused of being trans, who is responsible for verifying that? Will teachers or administrators be expected to examine birth certificates — or worse, body parts?"
Stark-Chessa was joined Thursday by her brother and mother, who also testified against the bills.
Susan Stark said she is an educator who has had transgender students in her classroom before, though she didn't really understand what it meant to be transgender until her youngest child came out as trans. When that happened, she said her family was mostly met with acceptance and love, though they did encounter some negativity.
"I suspect this negativity came from a place of not understanding what it means to be trans," Stark said. "Trans kids just want to be accepted as the gender they are. Acknowledging this certainly benefits trans people, but in fact it benefits all of us to know we will be accepted as we are."
Felix Markosian, a senior at Ellsworth High School, told the committee that he received worried messages from trans friends earlier this week saying they didn't know what they would do if the bills pass.
"Even these bills just being presented affects these kids so much," Markosian said outside the hearing. "Even the thought of this becoming law and being the future is really scary and puts a lot of distress on these people. It's not fair they have to go through that when every other kid in school doesn't."
Spokespeople for Gov. Janet Mills did not respond Thursday afternoon to questions about whether the governor has taken a position on any of the bills.
Attorney General Aaron Frey submitted testimony against the bills concerning transgender students in sports, as well as the bill expected to be heard later Thursday about removing gender identity from the Maine Human Rights Act.
HOW WOULD LAWS BE ENFORCED?
Some lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee also questioned how the bills presented Thursday would be enforced. The chairs of the committee, Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, and Rep. Amy Kuhn, D-Falmouth, both asked how schools would verify that a student is transgender.
Caruso said that students who play school sports already have to have doctor's physicals, and that doctors could verify a student's birth sex during the physical.
"What if the physician feels it's their ethical duty to affirm the student's identity and that is what is sent to the school?" Kuhn asked. "Would there be consequences for the physician? And when the form is submitted to the school, is that the end of it? What if the school or community have questions. Is there further investigation?"
"My understanding is the definition for sex has to do with their reproductive system, so the doctor I think has a duty to put on the form what they were born with," Caruso said. "It's sex, not gender, on the form. I think that makes it clear."
She also noted that other states have adopted policies prohibiting transgender athletes in youth sports. Nationwide, 26 states ban transgender youth from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit that tracks gender equality issues nationwide.
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