WASHINGTON — Maine’s education office is being ordered to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports or face federal prosecution, an escalation in President Donald Trump’s threats to pull federal money from states and schools over transgender athletes.
The U.S. Education Department on Wednesday said an investigation concluded Maine’s education office violated the Title IX antidiscrimination law by allowing transgender girls to compete on girls’ sports teams and use girls’ facilities. It’s giving Maine 10 days to comply with a list of demands or face Justice Department prosecution.
“If Maine does not swiftly and completely come into compliance with Title IX, we will initiate the process to limit MDOE’s access to federal funding,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement.
The federal investigation into Maine’s Department of Education was opened Feb. 21, just hours after Trump and the state’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, clashed over the issue at a meeting of governors at the White House. During the heated exchange, Mills told the Republican president, “We’ll see you in court.”
Messages to Mills’ office and the state’s education department were not immediately answered.
It’s an astonishing turnaround for a civil rights investigation at the Education Department, which often takes months or years to resolve cases. The Trump administration has pushed harder and faster to punish alleged violators, in some cases drawing accusations that it’s bypassing due process procedures required by law.
The proposed resolution would require Maine’s schools to forbid transgender girls from participating in any sports program or using any locker room or bathroom designated for girls. It would also force the state to accept the Trump administration’s definition of sex as male or female only.
The state would be required to revoke individual awards and honors won by transgender girls and give them to athletes who otherwise would have won. The state would have to issue a formal apology to those athletes “for allowing her educational experience and participation in school sports to be marred by sex discrimination,” the Education Department said.
A separate announcement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the University of Maine system appears to be in compliance with Trump’s orders on transgender athletes and will continue receiving money from the agency. The USDA said it began investigating the issue last month but the system responded saying it does not allow transgender athletes in women’s sports.
The system is “relieved to put the Department’s Title IX compliance review behind us,” Chancellor Dannel Malloy said in a statement.
Trump campaigned on a promise to remove transgender athletes from girls’ sports and has made it a top priority.
The Education Department has launched investigations over the issue at the University of Pennsylvania and San Jose State University, along with a high school sports league in Massachusetts. On Wednesday, the White House said it suspended about $175 million in federal funding for Penn over the participation of a transgender athlete in its swimming program.
Trump officials are ramping up investigations even as they lay off about half the employees at the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which investigates complaints and works to bring schools into compliance. The cuts entirely laid off staff at seven regional offices, including one in Boston, which has historically handled cases in Maine and New England.
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