Investigation follows President Trump’s Remarks at the Republican Governor’s Association Dinner
February 21, 2025
WASHINGTON – Today the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent a letter to the Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin announcing that OCR is initiating a directed investigation of the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) 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, thereby violating federal antidiscrimination law. The letter also notifies MDOE that OCR is launching an investigation into Maine School Administrative District #51 (MSAD #51), after it was reported that Greely High School, a school under its jurisdiction, is continuing to allow at least one male student to compete in girls’ categories.
This follows President Trump’s February 20
remarks
at the Republican Governor’s Association dinner that Maine risks losing federal funding if it continues to allow transgender males to participate in female sports.
“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,” said
Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. “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. OCR will do everything in its power to ensure taxpayers are not funding blatant civil rights violators.”
State laws do not override federal antidiscrimination laws, and the MDOE and its schools remain subject to Title IX and its implementing regulations. In addition to MDOE, the Department earlier this month
announced directed investigations into the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), both of which publicly announced plans to violate federal antidiscrimination laws related to girls’ and women’s sports.
BACKGROUND:
This letter comes after President Trump’s February 5 Executive Order,
Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, directing executive agencies to take “all appropriate action to protect all-female athletic opportunities,” and stipulating that the United States will “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities” pursuant to
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Earlier, on January 31, OCR issued a
Dear Colleague Letter to K-12 schools and institutions of higher education notifying them that OCR will enforce President Trump’s 2020 Title IX Rule.
After President Trump’s February 20
remarks,
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey
responded that the state will “do everything in [his] power to defend Maine’s laws”, which allow biological men to compete in female athletics and intrude into girls’ private spaces. The Department of Education will do its due diligence and investigate Maine’s compliance with federal civil rights law.
