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Maine Senate rejects sports ban, sounding death knell for anti-trans bills this session

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Maine Senate rejects sports ban, sounding death knell for anti-trans bills this session

Jun 17, 2025 | 12:57 pm ET
By Eesha Pendharkar
Maine Senate rejects sports ban, sounding death knell for anti-trans bills this session
Description
Lilac Lotus (center), an artist from Farmington, Maine, demonstrates in the State House in Augusta against proposed bills that would restrict transgender rights. At right is Jodi O'Connor from Starks. The Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the bills today. May 8, 2025. (Photo by Jim Neuter)

All legislation seeking to roll back rights for transgender people in Maine has now failed after the majority of the Senate on Monday rejected a bill that would have banned transgender girls from participating in girls sports.

That means that despite pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration, Maine will continue to uphold the right for trans students to participate in sports that align with their gender identity.

The state’s policies have come under scrutiny over the past few months, with the Department of Justice launching a lawsuit against the state for allegedly violating federal anti-discrimination protections in addition to repeated threats from several agencies to cut federal funding.

Last week, House lawmakers advanced LD 233, which sought to ban trans girls from playing on girls’ teams. It was the only bill out of eight anti-trans measures that a majority of lawmakers in the lower chamber supported, with four Democrats joining with Republicans to advance the bill. During the floor debate, many argued that the bill was not intended to punish trans students, but to bring fairness to athletics and preserve girls’ spaces.

However, on Monday, the Senate voted 21-13 to reject that bill as well as other measures not supported by the House, including bills aiming to ban trans students from bathrooms, locker rooms (LD 868) and trans people from single-sex shelters (LD 1337).

Later in the evening, both the House and Senate voted to insist on their respective positions, effectively killing the measure, since the chambers could not agree.

This story first appeared in the Maine Morning Star, a member with the Phoenix in the nonprofit States Newsroom.