How one Maine high school became the center of Trump's war on trans student athletes
Greely High School in Cumberland, Maine, has become a focal point in Trump's crusade against transgender student athletes.
It started with a track meet. A transgender girl on the Greely High School track team in Maine had won a pole-vaulting event, and a state politician took to Facebook to complain. The lawmaker not only circulated the girl’s name but included a side-by-side image of her competing in the boy’s division two years before.
As the Feb. 17 post went viral in conservative media, it drew the attention of the Trump administration, which had, in an executive order, effectively banned transgender students from participating in girls' and women's sports. President Donald Trump confronted Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, demanding that her state comply with the order. She hasn’t agreed. And the school district hasn’t backed down.
Now Greely High School is at the center of a conflict over Title IX, the civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education. On Friday, the Trump administration moved to pull all federal education funding — a major escalation risking over $200 million per year for Maine schools.
Outsiders see the showdown as an important test of how far the administration will go to force states to follow executive orders, as students and families at Greely High School brace for whatever comes next.
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