Voters pick a side in trans showdown between Trump and Democrat

Most Maine residents do not believe transgender athletes should compete in girls’ and women’s sports, a University of New Hampshire poll released Thursday showed.

The survey came as the Trump administration’s deadline for the state to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to bar biological males from girls’ and women’s sports came. Maine refused to comply with the order and the Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights referred the state’s “noncompliance with Title IX” to the Justice Department.

The poll showed that 64% of Maine residents believe transgender athletes “definitely should not” or “probably should not” participate in girls’ and women’s sports. Only 29% of Maine residents believed that transgender athletes “probably should” or “definitely should” compete against girls and women in sports.

The poll also showed that 56% of Maine Democrats believe that transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.

When it came to enacting policies to combat the issue of transgender participation in sports, the poll showed that 50% of Maine residents wanted it at the federal level, while 41% believe policy should be left up to the states.

Around 1,057 Maine residents completed the poll between March 20 and 24 with the margin of error being around 3%.

The poll’s results came as Maine officials continued to thumb their nose at Trump’s “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order, which he signed in February.

“Today, OCR referred Maine’s noncompliance with Title IX to @TheJusticeDept for enforcement in court for continuing to unlawfully allow males to compete against females,” the department announced in a social media post on Friday.

“HHS will continue to protect women’s sports and keep the promises of Title IX for America’s women and girls.”

The Maine School Administrative District 51, home to Greely High School, where a transgender athlete incited national controversy after winning a girls’ pole vault competition in February, said Thursday it was not complying and will instead “continue to follow state law and the Maine Human Rights Act.”

The Maine Principals’ Association said in a statement it is also “bound by the law, including the Maine Human Rights Act, which our participation policy reflects.”

The situation involving the trans athlete at Greely High School attracted national attention after Maine Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby identified the athlete by name with a photograph in a social media post. Libby was later censured by the Maine legislature, and she has since filed a lawsuit to have it overturned.