Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,
The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the Maine Department of Education over its approval of male participation in women’s sporting events.
The investigation is being initiated by the federal department’s Office for Civil Rights “amid allegations that it continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ interscholastic athletics and that it has denied female athletes female-only intimate facilities,” the department said in a Feb. 21 statement. These actions are in violation of “federal anti-discrimination law.”
The Office for Civil Rights is also investigating Maine School Administrative District 51 following reports that a school under its jurisdiction, Greely High School, “is continuing to allow at least one male student to compete in girls’ categories.”
The investigation was begun after President Donald Trump said in remarks during the Feb. 20 Republican Governors Association Dinner that Maine risks losing federal funding if the state continues to allow males to take part in female sporting events.
“I heard men are still playing in Maine,” Trump said.
“I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to give any federal money. They’re still saying we want men to play in women’s sports, and I cannot believe they’re doing that. So we’re not going to give them any federal funding—none whatsoever until they clean that up.”
On Feb. 21, Maine Gov. Janet Mills issued a response to Trump’s statement, saying the state “will not be intimidated by the President’s threats.”
If Trump does pull back funding, her administration and the attorney general “will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding,” Mills said.
The U.S. Department of Education clarified that no state law can override federal anti-discrimination laws and that Maine’s Education Department and its schools are subject to Title IX regulations. Title IX prohibits discrimination in education on the basis of sex. It established the foundation for women’s athletic programs.
“Maine would have you believe that it has no choice in how it treats women and girls in athletics - that is, that it must follow its state laws and allow male athletes to compete against women and girls,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education, said.
“Let me be clear: If Maine wants to continue to receive federal funds from the Education Department, it has to follow Title IX. If it wants to forgo federal funds and continue to trample the rights of its young female athletes, that, too, is its choice. [The Office for Civil Rights] will do everything in its power to ensure taxpayers are not funding blatant civil rights violators.”
Earlier this month, the department announced an investigation of the California Interscholastic Federation and the Minnesota State High School League after they publicly announced plans that could potentially allow male athletes to compete in female sports and also use women’s intimate facilities.
On Feb. 5, Trump signed an executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” that aims to protect women’s sporting events.
Many educational institutions and athletic associations have allowed men to take part in women’s sports in recent years, which the order called “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls,” and added that such actions deny “women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”
The order made it the policy of the United States to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities” and to “oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports.”
On Feb. 6, the board of governors of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) voted to update the association’s “transgender student-athlete participation policy” following the Trump executive order.
The new NCAA rules restrict “competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only.” The NCAA is made up of 1,100 universities and colleges across 50 states, enrolling more than 530,000 student-athletes.
Candice Jackson, deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education, said the NCAA “has correctly changed its tune on its discriminatory practices against female athletes.”