Maine
This Democrat is at the center of Maine’s debate over transgender athletes
Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
A slate of Republican-led bills aimed at undoing Maine’s policies allowing transgender girls to play in sports aligned with their gender identity are heading for votes after the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee effectively deadlocked on three of them late Tuesday.
The key player was first-term Rep. Dani O’Halloran, D-Brewer, who voted with Republicans on two bills that would bar schools that receive state funding from allowing transgender girls to play alongside girls. She also endorsed a version of a similar bill from Rep. Liz Caruso, R-Caratunk, that would take out language allowing people to sue schools for violations.
Democrats who control Augusta otherwise united on the issue that has led to Gov. Janet Mills’ fight with President Donald Trump over Maine’s federal funding. These Republican-led bills still have an uphill path to passage in the Legislature, but O’Halloran’s stance has injected uncertainty around how the votes will land in the closely divided House.
Mills has defended Maine’s laws on the subject but has not said how she feels about changing the policies, saying in March that it was “worthy of a debate.” A University of New Hampshire poll of Maine that month found two-thirds of Mainers think transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete in women’s and girls’ sports.
It’s no surprise that O’Halloran was the one to break with her party. She was one of two Democrats to vote with Republicans in April against enshrining existing civil rights protections — including those for gender identity — in the Maine Constitution.
She was one of the most vocal members during Tuesday’s committee session, questioning Mary Bonauto, a prominent LGBTQ+ rights lawyer from Portland, about whether transgender participation in girls sports erodes opportunities for those who were born girls. The lawmaker returned to that point before the committee started taking votes.
“You have not only transgender girls on girls teams, you have girls on girls teams, and then there are some transgender boys that are playing on girls teams,” she said. “So that leaves me sitting here wondering, where does that leave girls?”
Other Democrats stuck together in voting against the bills. Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, worried about the real-world effects of Caruso’s bill that would bar transgender girls from girls sports but allow schools to create co-ed teams to accommodate those students.
“If the school does not have the resources or can’t put a regional team together, then we have de facto just discriminated against those students because we have not given them choice — choices,” she said.
Rep. Rachel Henderson of Rumford, summed up the Republican perspective on the committee, saying her faith teaches her to love everyone but that it is “hard science” that there are only two biological sexes. (The American Medical Association recognizes a “medical spectrum” of gender.)
“With that love has to come a truth, and this is the truth I’m standing on,” she said. “But please know that my desire is to always wrap that truth in love.”
Many Maine municipalities will open cooling centers this week with the National Weather Service issuing a variety of heat advisories covering the next few days.
The Maine DEP also issued an air quality alert for Wednesday with ground-level ozone expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
All of York County, interior Cumberland and Androscoggin counties, and the southern half of Oxford County will fall under an extreme heat warning from 11 a.m. Wednesday to 8 p.m. Friday.
The warning calls for “dangerously hot conditions” that could feature heat index values of up to 110 degrees, with overnight lows only expected to fall into the 70s, according to the weather service’s office in Gray.
The rest of the state — save northern Aroostook, Piscataquis and Somerset counties — falls under a heat advisory from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday. However, the weather service has also placed much of the state under an extreme heat watch for Thursday.
Heat index values, which measure how hot it feels to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature, are expected to reach up to 104 degrees during the heat advisory period, the weather service warns. They could reach 110 degrees Thursday, when the extreme heat watch is in effect.
Northern Oxford and Franklin counties, and central Somerset County, can expect a heat index value of up to 99 degrees Wednesday, according to the weather service.
The weather service advises people to drink plenty of fluids, stay in air-conditioned rooms when possible, avoid extended periods in the sun and check up on relatives and neighbors. It also warns not to leave young children and pets in unattended vehicles, as “car interiors will reach lethal temperatures in a matter of minutes.”
Cooling Centers
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection has also issued an air quality alert from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Wednesday along the coast from Kittery to Acadia National Park. The agency warns that ground-level ozone concentrations are expected to reach levels that are unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Ozone levels may reach “moderate levels” further inland, according to the Maine DEP, including in all of Androscoggin and Kennebec counties, as well as parts of Cumberland, Knox, Lincoln, Penobscot, Sagadahoc, Waldo, Washington and York counties.
Elevated ozone levels can pose a risk to children, older adults and people suffering from respiratory or heart diseases, according to the Maine DEP. Anyone exerting themselves outdoors may also experience health effects, which could include coughing, shortness of breath, throat irritation and mild chest pain.
Ozone levels were already climbing in southern New England on Tuesday, according to the Maine DEP, and winds are expected to bring those conditions to Maine on Wednesday.
The Maine DEP recommends that vulnerable populations avoid strenuous outdoor activities, keep windows closed, and circulate indoor air with fans or air conditioners. Those with asthma are also advised to keep quick-relief medication handy.
Particle pollution levels are also expected to be moderate across the state on Wednesday due to wildfire smoke, the Maine DEP said in its announcement Tuesday. Wildfires in Colorado, which have claimed the lives of three firefighters, had burned nearly 90,000 acres as of Tuesday, according to the Denver Post.
Maine could face up to $50 million in penalties next year due to errors in its payments for federal food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
Newly released data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture find that Maine’s error rate last year was nearly 11%, the bulk of which were overpayments. That’s in line with the U.S. average. But starting in October of next year, states with error rates above 6% must cover a portion of the SNAP benefits.
Anna Korsen, executive director of Full Plates, Full Potential, said the overpayments aren’t fraud — they’re human error. She said this new cost-shifting policy enacted last year under the Trump administration further complicates the SNAP application process.
“Instead, we could make this program more accessible and more efficient,” Korsen said. “And that would reduce the number of errors and also ensure that Mainers who are eligible for SNAP have access to it.”
She’s urging Congress to delay or reverse the policy under the farm bill that’s currently under consideration.
Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services said it’s taking steps to reduce the error rate, including modernizing its systems and hiring an additional 40 eligibility specialists.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
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