Maine Governor Janet Mills’ dispute with Trump about trans -athletes, explained

Cnn
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President Donald Trump threatened to roam Maine from his federal financing on Friday when it refuses to fulfill his executive regulation in order to ban transgender women in competition in women’s sports, and to mark the latest front of the white house in the country’s cultural wars.

In a tense exchange with the president, the democratic governor of Maine Janet Mills had a simple answer: “See you in court.”

The Testy encounter took place as part of the Winter Summit of the National Governor Association at a cross -party event.

It is the latest chapter in the reaction of the states to Trump’s efforts to ban transgender women from the competition in women’s sports, the fulfillment of a promise of a campaign by Central Trump 2024. Two transgender girls who visit the high school in New Hampshire, complain, to challenge the executive order.

The remarks of Mill’s support and admiration from some. The author Stephen King wrote that the governor is “proud to be a Maine man” in a post on X.

We know the following about the dispute.

The dispute is based on Trump’s executive order to “keep men out of women’s sports”, one of dozens that was signed within his first weeks of office.

“With this order of the executive, the war against women’s sports is over,” said the president when he signed the order.

The order is based on compliance with titles IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual education programs or activities that are financed by the Federal Government, as well as the federal government’s commitment to the private sector.

As part of the administration of former President Joe Biden, it was assumed that the schools violated IX when they prevented transgender students from participating in sports teams.

The Trump administration has represented the opposite view: A civil servant of the White House previously said that the position of the Trump government in title IX is: “If you have women’s sports, if you offer women options, then you have it so safe, Also fair and also private opportunities to be, and that means that they preserve women’s sports for women. ”

The move to ban transgender women from the competition in women’s sports is only one of the executive commands that Trump signed that Target -Transgende -Hums compete. He also signed commands that limit gender-controlled care for children and break the hiring of transgender people in the military in an indefinite way. The Department of Health and Human Services has also published new definitions of words such as “sex”, “female”, “woman”, “girl” and “male”, who define sex as a “unchangeable biological classification of a person as male or female. “”

The NCAA changed its policy in the course of the executive regulation and announced that it would limit the ban on women sports to athletes who were assigned to women at birth – the ban on transgender and interseex athletes. According to NCAA’s earlier sports-to-sports policy, which came into force in 2022, the national management position of each sport determined the participation of transgender athletes.

Although transgender athletes have become a controversy, the number of transgender student athletes is considered very small. NCAA President Charlie Baker said last year that he knew about 10 transgender athletes in the NCAA.

Despite the command, the Maine officials, including the governor, the Ministry of Education and the nationwide sport of the government agency, claim that the state is obliged to offer equal opportunities in accordance with the Maine Human Rights Act. The law was changed in 2021 to incorporate gender identity as a protected class against discrimination against discrimination, living space, education, loan extension or access to public accommodation.

Trump delivered remarks on Thursday evening at a Dinner of the Republican Governor’s Association and said Maine and said: “We will not give you a federal financing until you clean up this.”

Mills replied in a statement on Friday. “If the president tries to unilaterally deprive the school children in the school children from Maine, my administration and the Attorney General will take all appropriate and necessary legal measures in order to restore this financing and the academic opportunity that he offers,” she said. “The state of Maine will not be intimidated by the president’s threats.”

Then at a Friday event In the White House, the President called Mills again.

“I understand Maine, is Maine here, the governor of Maine?” Trump said that they spoke to republican and democratic governors in the state dining room.

“Yes, I’m here,” said Mills.

“Will you not keep it?” Said Trump.

“I accept the laws of the state and the federal government,” said Mills.

“Well, we are the federal law,” said Trump. “You do it better because you won’t get federal financing at all if you don’t.”

Trump added: “And by the way, their population, although it is a little liberal, even though I have cut very well there, their population does not want men to play in women’s sports. So … They hold better because otherwise they will not receive federal financing. ”

Mills replied: “See you in court.”

“Well, we’ll see you in court, I’m looking forward to it,” said Trump. “It should be really easy and enjoy your life after the governor because I don’t believe that you will be in chosen politics.”

After the exchange, the Department of Civil Rights of the Ministry of Education announced an investigation of titles IX in the Maine Ministry of Education, which refer to the claims that it violates the ban on transgender women’s athletes.

The department referred to “allegations that (the Ministry of Education of Main) continues to enable male athletes to take part in the girls’ icing athletics and that they have only refused intimate institutions of female athletes, which violates the law on the Federal Anti-Discrimination Act” , such a press release “from the Federal Department of Education.

In response to this, Mills argued that the retention of retaining federal financing would be unconstitutional and framed the dispute as a larger conflict across the borders of the presidential authority – which Trump drove forward in the first weeks of his second term.

“No President – Republican or Democrat – can hold back the federal financing approved and acquired by the congress and paid for the taxpayers from Maine to force someone to comply with his will,” wrote the governor in a statement. “It is a violation of our constitution and our laws, which I put on an oath to maintain.”

“This is not just about who can compete in the sporting area, but whether a president can force compliance with his will without regulating our nation,” continues the declaration.

“In America, the President is neither a king nor a dictator, just like this who tries to act like this – and it is the rule of law that prevents him from being so,” wrote Mills.

In addition to the investigation of the Maine Ministry of Education, the Federal Department of Education announced that it would examine a certain school district in Maine after reporting that a school can “compete at least one male student in the girls’ categories”.

The superintendent of the school district recognized the “national media press and attention about one of our school countries who is transgender, won a state competition title” and expressed his “unshakable support for all of our students” in a explanation on Friday. He added that the school would have “additional police presence and security” on Monday, since “concerns about general security are addressed”.

Previously, Maine Rep. Laurel Libby, a Republican, claimed on Facebook that a transgender student had won a Maine girl competition at a high school in the Maine.

CNN has contacted the high school named after a comment.