Maine
Maine residents agree with keeping trans athletes out of girls' and women's sports, poll shows
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.
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Gov. Janet Mills attends an event, March 11, 2022, in Augusta, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
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.”
MAINE GOV. JANET MILLS RESPONDS TO TRUMP’S DEMAND FOR APOLOGY OVER TRANS-ATHLETE POLICIES
The State House is seen in Augusta, Maine, on June 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
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.
Libby reacted to the OCR’s referral to the DOJ on Saturday.
Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby reacted to the OCR’s referral to the DOJ. (Fox News)
“Gov. Mills and the Democrat majority refusal to comply with federal Title IX protections has now resulted in Maine being officially referred to the Department of Justice. This is a direct consequence of their radical policies that put ideology ahead of fairness and safety for Maine girls and the education of our students,” Libby told Fox News Digital.
“Mainers believe in common sense, fairness and protecting the rights of women and girls in sports and spaces. While this extreme stance does not reflect the values of our state, it is ultimately Maine’s schools, students and taxpayers who will suffer the consequences of their reckless decisions and ongoing feud with biological reality.”
Representatives for Mills or Maine Attorney General Anthony Frey have not responded to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Trump’s issue with the state of Maine came to a head at a meeting of the National Governors Association in late February.
Trump threatened to cut federal funding to the state for not banning biological males from girls’ and women’s sports.
The next day, Mills’ office responded with a statement threatening legal action against the Trump administration if it did withhold federal funding from the state. Then, Trump and Mills verbally sparred in a widely publicized argument at the White House during a bipartisan meeting of governors.
“Are you not going to comply with that?” Trump asked Mills.
Since then, multiple protests against Mills have been held outside the state Capitol, and the Maine University System has cooperated with the Trump administration to ensure no trans athletes compete in women’s sports after a temporary funding pause.
The OCR announced earlier this month it found the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association and Greely High School in violation of Title IX for continuing to enable trans inclusion in girls’ sports.
OCR Acting Director Anthony Archeval previously provided a statement to Fox News Digital warning of potential consequences for continued defiance of the executive order.
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“What HHS is asking of the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association (MPA) and Greely High School is simple — protect female athletes’ rights. Girls deserve girls-only sports without male competitors. And if Maine won’t come to the table to voluntarily comply with Title IX, HHS will enforce Title IX to the fullest extent permitted by the law,” Archeval said.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Maine residents and first responders saluted as police escorted the remains of WWII Pvt. Willard Merrill from Boston to his hometown of Dover-Foxcroft on Saturday.
The escort stretched along I-95 from Logan Airport to Newport, where it traveled along Route 7 to Lary Funeral Home, where it arrived shortly after 7 p.m.
Along the way, first responders paid tribute as Merrill’s remains passed by, as captured in images from those in the escort.
Merrill, who was 21 when he died, was among the U.S. and Filipino soldiers captured by the Japanese Imperial Army after the surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942.
After his capture, Merrill was one of 78,000 prisoners who endured the 65-mile Bataan Death March, which began the next day. Thousands of prisoners died during the march.
Merrill was held at the Cabanatuan POW camp, where he died on Nov. 14, 1942, and was buried in a common grave, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said.
Despite several efforts over the years, his remains were not identified until recently. They were flown back to Logan Airport in Boston on Saturday, where the escort to Dover-Foxcroft began.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires will drift over Maine this weekend, pushing air quality into the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” range in some areas, according to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
On Saturday, smoke from the fires is expected to continue moving into the state, with hourly monitored values of particle pollution in the USG (unhealthy for sensitive groups) range in northern Maine.
With only light winds in the forecast, the smoke is expected to linger in the region, according to a statement from the DEP.
The rest of the state is projected to remain in the moderate air quality range for particle pollution. Meanwhile, ozone levels are expected to reach the moderate range in the southwest and midcoast regions and remain in the good range for the rest of Maine.
For Sunday, air quality forecasters do not expect wildfire smoke to move out of the state, with northern and western Maine expected to remain in the USG range. The rest of the state is expected to stay in the moderate range.
On Monday, winds may push smoke out of Maine, but another plume from Labrador could affect air quality.
At elevated levels of particle pollution, children, the elderly and individuals with respiratory or heart diseases such as asthma, bronchitis or COPD can experience reduced lung function and irritation.
Healthy adults who exert themselves outdoors may also experience symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath, throat irritation or mild chest pain.
During periods of elevated particle pollution levels, experts recommend avoiding strenuous outdoor activity, closing windows, and circulating indoor air with a fan or air conditioner.
OLD TOWN, Maine (WABI) – Governor Janet Mills proclaimed June as Maine Dairy Month. Today she, along with dairy farmers, students and others began the month with a milk toast at the University of Maine’s Witter Farm.
The gathering brought together dairy businesses, students and researchers at UMaine’s Witter Farm to celebrate and recognize the impact of the industry on the state of Maine.
Also stressing the importance of keeping the industry strong for generations to come.
“That’s vital,” answered UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy. “We’ve got to be able to work through 4-H, we have some students here who are still in high school and all the way up through our graduate programs where we’re able to really understand how to modernize, improve efficiency and keeping that farming industry going.”
The 4-H program through U-Maine looks to teach young students about certain fields through hands-on education.
Mariah Johnson is a current 4-H member of Franklin County. She will be attending UMaine-Farmington in the fall on a pre-vet track.
“I’ve grown up on a farm my entire life so being around the animals and caring for the animals, I just want to be able to be one step ahead and be able to care for them on a deeper level,” commented Johnson.
Johnson says there really aren’t a lot of younger Mainers looking to make a career in the farming field and she sees it firsthand with 4-H.
“It’s very sad seeing that there isn’t as many kids going in as they’re coming out and I think that’s the same with the farm and America’s growing faster and the farms are decreasing and I really think we need to get that next generation into so that we can have a future for ag,” added Johnson.
Mills spoke at the ceremony. Praising the farm for it’s robotic milking system and stressing just how critical new ideas are for improving farming and holding on to the industry.
“Open space is part of our heritage, part of our economy, part of our sense of place here in Maine. So every kind of innovation that keeps this land open and in-use and productive is valuable to us and to generations to come,” said Mills.
Witter Farm and the robotic milking machine is open for tours. Click here for more information.
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