HODGDON, Maine — A northern Maine school district has adopted language pushed by the Trump administration that only recognizes two sexes of students — biological males and females — and bars students from using private spaces reserved for members of the opposite sex.
The new policy does not specifically mention transgender students, but it appears to prohibit them from using bathrooms or locker rooms that align with their gender, despite protections in the Maine Human Rights Act for people based on their gender identity.
During a meeting of the MSAD 70 school board in Hodgdon on Monday night, board members unanimously voted to recognize only the two sexes and require that all private spaces be separated by biological sex, according to Superintendent Tyler Putnam. Putnam said the vote is meant to align the district with Title IX, a federal anti-discrimination statute.
“Our board, similar to many people in Maine, have been following the back and forth communication between the federal government and the state,” he said. “We are hoping for both sides to work together to help support local school districts like ourselves.”
On Jan. 20, Trump pointed to Title IX — a law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools — to back up his executive order that recognized only two sexes.
It was not immediately clear how the decision would impact the Hodgdon district or Maine more broadly. But Putnam said the motion directs him to rewrite district policies related to transgender athletes.
“It is my interpretation that the school board will be looking to approve policies that align biological sex to their specific athletic teams too,” he said. “These policies will need to be approved by the policy committee and the board once rewritten.”
The board’s decision appears to buck the state’s existing human rights law and land the district in the middle of Gov. Janet Mills’ ongoing battle with Trump over the rights of transgender students.
Members of the Mills administration, the state Department of Education, the attorney general’s office and the Maine Principals’ Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Trump administration has warned that schools and associations that do not follow some of its new executive orders related to transgender students could lose federal funding. It has also singled out Maine institutions for allowing transgender student athletes to compete in sports.
In late March, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said that the state was not in compliance with Title IX. Last week, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Mills, putting the state on notice that the Justice Department would take all measures to assure compliance with the president’s orders.
“The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has begun a Title IX investigation into the Maine Department of Education,” Bondi wrote. ”If these or other federal investigations show that the relevant Maine entities are indeed denying girls an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them to compete against boys, the Department of Justice stands ready to take all appropriate action to enforce federal law.”
The state so far hasn’t complied with the Trump administration’s orders. The Maine Principals’ Association — the body that regulates school sports — has denied that it violated Title IX and argued that the Trump administration doesn’t have the authority to investigate because it doesn’t receive federal funds,
Some conservative Maine lawmakers took to social media to celebrate the Hodgdon school district’s decision. One of them was Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, an outspoken lawmaker who has spearheaded efforts to ban transgender females from competing in school sports and was censured in the Maine House of Representatives after singling out a transgender athlete who had won a track-and-field event.
Putnam said that with the rising educational costs, this is a time to work with each other and not against.
“My hope is that all of our students will benefit from the leadership decisions that are made at the local, state and national level,” he said.
