A conservative group that wishes to restrict transgender students’ entry to sports activities and faculty bathrooms is circulating a petition at polling places in Maine at the moment. If they acquire sufficient signatures, the measure may very well be on subsequent 12 months’s poll.
The proposed referendum would require students to play on sports activities groups and use locker rooms and bathrooms that correspond with their organic intercourse at delivery.
The group Protect Girls Sports will want about 68,000 signatures by February to make it on to Maine’s 2026 poll.
It is the most recent try to change Maine’s legislation, after a number of payments launched final legislative session failed to amend the Maine Human Rights Act and ban transgender students from taking part in sports activities groups aligned with their gender identities.
Maine has confronted ongoing stress by the Trump administration to adjust to the president’s govt order banning transgender athletes from competing on women’ sports activities groups. Earlier this 12 months, the Trump administration accused Maine of violating anti-discrimination legislation and the state is concerned in an ongoing lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged Title IX violations.
At least six college districts in Maine have banned trans students from women sports activities and locker rooms in defiance of the Maine Human Rights Act.