Platner replacement should support single-sex private spaces and sports at school | Opinion

Leyland Streiff is the principal officer of the Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine ballot committee and leader of the Maine Girl Dads, a coalition of fathers whose mission is to restore single-sex competitive sports and private spaces in schools.

We — the Maine Girl Dads, a nonpartisan coalition of 8,000-plus dads united by a mission to protect the sex-based rights of our daughters — believe that Graham Platner has created a significant opportunity for the Democratic Party. Will any candidate take it?

It’s an opportunity to challenge establishment thinking, to reclaim common sense and to reassure females of all ages that their personal boundaries — and their sex-based rights — actually matter (and aren’t just a talking point on the campaign trail).

This is an opportunity to listen to the dozens of women and girls who have come forward to say the current system is broken. That any policies prioritizing gender identity over biological sex are inequitable. That they are sexist, regressive and an affront to their federal civil rights (specifically Title IX, which was a civil right hard-won by women 54 years ago). Rights that the U.S. Supreme Court just affirmed 9-0 are sex-based rights as it relates to competitive sport.

This is an opportunity to believe the young girls and women who have risked everything to courageously come forward and testify on April 14 in Augusta, detailing how current school and Maine Human Rights Act policies have resulted in exposure to voyeurism, masturbation, violence and mental trauma from males in their private spaces and on their sports podiums in our public schools. This should shock and shame us all and spur our leaders into action.

This is an opportunity to restore equality, inclusivity and progressive thinking in school and in sport, as everyone has a sex. Sex is not gender, and there is no right or wrong way to be a male or female (dress, feel, present, identify however you want). Sex is big enough for everyone. It always has been, and always will be. It’s the common, innate and immutable trait that every human shares. Recognizing biological fact doesn’t mean disrespecting personal identity.

This is an opportunity to restore and rebuild the growing fragmentation of the Democratic Party, driven by a voting base that does not carry the radical views of the elected elite. A voting base that increasingly wants progress, not regress, of sex-based rights. A voting base of girls and women that simply want single-sex private spaces and sports (both in our schools and in our jails). And a rapidly growing base of fathers that are no longer willing to watch the political establishment strip away their daughters’ civil rights and dignity for campaign funding.

This is an opportunity to end the sex-based discrimination that happens every day in Maine’s schools, and even in our jails. If a female wants a female-only space or sport (or jail cell), they are owed that legally and morally. We should listen to these girls and women. Believe them. Stop gaslighting them (as so many of our “progressive” institutions like the Maine Women’s Lobby chooses to do). We should honor them. Encourage them. Respect them. Protect them. Seek their consent. Not force them to undress or compete next to a male after they’ve told us they don’t want that.

This is an opportunity to stand up for the sex-based rights of all kids and — in doing so — stand out from the other candidates who will surely continue touting the regressive idea that females are undeserving of private spaces or competitive sports free of males.

Democrat Mainers want a hero. Platner just created an opportunity. Will anyone take it?

Which candidate will step up and meet the moment? Who will believe women and girls? Who will respect their personal boundaries and protect their sex-based rights? Who will stand against the sex-based discrimination that’s currently aimed at our state’s most vulnerable population: our schoolchildren?

We’re rooting for common sense. We’re rooting for candidates of all parties to stand up for every child’s right to single-sex sports and private spaces in our public schools.

We hope they all stand with us and stand with our girls.