High school transgender athletes compete in the Connecticut girls Class S indoor track meet at Hillhouse High School in New Haven, Connecticut. The Trump administration is expanding its Title IX probe. ((AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb, File))
Republican state legislators in Maine called on Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on Thursday to stand down her open defiance of Trump's Feb. 5 transgender sports executive order, which threatens hundreds of millions in federal funding to K-12 schools in the state, according to numbers obtained by the Portland Press Herald. MDOE received nearly a million dollars from HHS sub-agencies alone, Maine House Republicans said in a press release Thursday.
"Enough is enough, it is time to put away radical ideology and put the future of our kids first," said Assistant House Minority Leader Katrina Smith, R–Palermo. "The Mills administration’s policy of allowing biological boys in girls’ sports has physically and mentally mistreated our young ladies and now this same policy will harm every child and teacher with the loss of federal funds to our schools."
"If Maine Democrats continue to double down on allowing biological males to participate in girls' sports, our students stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding. Gov. [Janet] Mills and legislative Democrats have a renewed opportunity to do the right thing, to ensure restored funding and a fair and level playing field for Maine girls," added state Rep. Laurel Libby, R–Bangor, Thursday.
Last month, Libby was censured by Democrats in the Maine state legislature after posting on social media that a Greely High School pole vaulter, who competed as recently as June of last year as a biological male, won a statewide championship meet competing as a woman.
Libby was censured specifically for posting a picture of the high school athlete from Greely competing as a male, contrasted next to an image of the athlete winning the women's pole-vaulting competition at Maine's Class B state indoor championship meet in February. The athlete was a minor.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills and President Donald Trump at the White House during a meeting with the nation's governors last month. (Getty Images)
Mills and the Maine Principals Association (MPA) have argued that Trump's executive order conflicts with existing state Human Rights law. The MPA said that, as a result, it would defer to state law, which allows athletic eligibility to be determined based on a person's stated gender identity.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey confirmed to The New York Times on Thursday that his office received a "Notice of Violation" indicating MDOE was in violation of federal Title IX law as a result of its continued decision to allow athletic eligibility to be determined by gender-identity.
The letter arrived four days after HHS announced its Title IX investigation into MDOE on Feb. 21. Mills' office told local outlet the Bangor Daily News that her staff had not been questioned by federal investigators prior to the violation notice being sent out.
"No President – Republican or Democrat – can withhold federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will," Mills said in a statement. "It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws, which I took an oath to uphold."
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Maine Principals Association and Greely High School's principal and assistant principals for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hhs-expands-probe-maine-state-association-athletics-embattled-high-school