Maine was plunged into the center of a national debate on the question of whether transgender athletes should be able to participate in female sports since a republican state legislator published on the issue on Facebook in February and drew the attention of President Donald Trump, who distinguished the state so as not to have assured his decree to target transgender girls.
The Trump administration is now trying to force Maine to prohibit transgender athletes from the sports of girls, while state officials said that this would violate the Maine Human Rights Act.
The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Services referred to Maine at the United States Ministry of Justice For action on the issue, while the Federal Ministry of Education Try separately to get Maine To agree to ban transgender athletes. The two agencies cited the victory of a transgender student in a track championship for girls in February – the same number highlighted by representative Laurel Libby In his article on Facebook – in recent conclusions that Maine violated the Federal Law on the title IX.
At the same time, state legislators should take the invoices this session This would prevent transgender athletes from participating in girls sports and it would eliminate the protections of the gender identity of the maine’s human rights law.
A recent survey Maine voters from the New Hampshire University of the University Center revealed that 64% believe that transgender athletes should certainly not be allowed to participate in female sports and that 51% believe that transgender athletes should certainly not be allowed to compete in male sports.
But the public debate so far has been mainly among adults, even if young people are those who are directly affected.
Here is what some Maine students had to say if the transgender athletes should be able to compete.
Angelina Boisvert, Junior, Maine Central Institute
Angelina Boisvert, junior of the central institute of Maine. Anna Chadwick / Matin Sentinel
I am a woman biologically and I identify myself like a woman. I do gymnastics, track, grass hockey and I am delighted and next year I will do basketball.
I think it is unfair (so that transgender athletes compete in girls sports) because boys are already naturally stronger and faster and that does not change simply because they say they are a girl. The girls deserve a fair playground and letting the boys enter, that removes this.
The people of my school (have the opposite opinion) and I told them that I do not try to attack anyone in any way. It is not on this subject. No one is trying to be injuring.
People say you take the opportunity, but (transgender students) have the opportunity to play in the boys’ category while someone like me, who is not trans, I don’t have two options.
Amelia Connolly, second year student, freeport high school
I play football in summer and fall and I am an athlete of athletics in winter and spring, and I identify myself like a woman.
My thoughts are that no matter how you identify or who are, as a high school student, you should be able to be celebrated for your successes. I do not think that it is the place of someone else to judge, whether it is people in power or my comrades and my peers.
I think there is a time when he went too far, when this child essentially, his mental health is compromised in the face of the opinions of people and she is very breathtaking out of proportion. It must be so difficult for her as a high school, as an athlete, as a person, to go through all this.
I am not a pole vaulter, so I am not directly associated with this event. But if I was, I don’t think I would feel threatened or deprived of anything. I think it is very difficult for trans people to exist in society as it is, also that many things have progressed. I think we really need to celebrate people.
Jack Brogan, Junior, Freeport High School
Jack Brogan, Junior of Freeport High School. Shawn Patrick Ouellette / Portland Press Herald
I am a man and I play football. I also play the butt and I am once on the track.
There are not many (transgender athletes) in the world, but I think it is generally unfair for people who had previously identified themselves as one sex to change and the following season, which could be less than a year later, contribute as a different genre.
However, you have spent that you practice, taking time of your normal schedule to compete in an event and do your best. And in this particular case, it was a state championship. It seems just unfair. It seems that you cut the corners, and as an athlete, this is not what you are supposed to do.
I understand that there are always attenuating circumstances and it is not fair to punish (the students) so as not to have the impression of being the sex which has been assigned to them at birth, but I have the impression that there should be rules in place to level the rules of the game, and there are not for the moment.
Maya Koerber-Marx, Senior, Brunswick High School
Maya Koerber-Marx, an elderly person in Brunswick high school. Shawn Patrick Ouellette / Portland Press Herald
I identify with the sex which was assigned to me at birth and I use his pronouns. I play four sports-Cross-country, basketball, interior track and outdoor track.
In my opinion, I think that transgender students should absolutely be able to practice high school sports. I do not see any problem with this because in my mind, transgender women are women and transgender men are men.
When I see the big titles that say: “Keep men out of female sports”, it’s just a wrong perception because for me there is no problem. These are women who play in female sports, where they belong.
I think people should be more concerned with the mental and physical health of trans children. These are children you are talking about and there is a very high risk for the LGBTQ community with regard to mental health problems.
So, my greatest concern is, how do we take care of trans children? How do we ensure that they feel safe, protected and welcome? It is more important than if they play a sport in high school.
Cassidy Carlisle, senior, almost Isle High School
I am a woman and I am in football for university girls, university Nordic skiing and university athletics.
I do not have the impression that transgender athletes should be able to compete in girls sports and it is mainly because I have been personally affected. I am a Nordic skier and I was beaten several times by a transgender athlete and I do not think it is true.
I do not think it is fair to remove these opportunities from organic women who work very hard for the spots they have.
I believe that everyone deserves an equal and equitable space to compete and respect, like everyone else. But I think we must also protect spaces for women. Biological men have been proven to have a physical advantage over biological women, and for me personally, I think we have to keep the spaces of equal and fair and safe women.
People like to say, “A person who beat you is not so serious.” But the reality is that a person beating women means that all these women lose a place. Everyone came across a place. This prevents the podium, and it is defeated, because we work hard.
Sage Sculli, Senior, Gardiner Area High School
Sage Sculli, an elder to Gardiner Area High School. Anna Chadwick / Matin Sentinel
I use her / her pronouns and I play tennis.
I think transgender students should absolutely be able to compete in sports, regardless of their identification. Playing a sport concerns your participation and the effort you make. I do not think that gender identity should have a kind of restraint on your ability to play.
I understand that the sports of boys and girls are based on physical limitations and I can see how it could arouse a cause of concern for certain people, but I think that the population (trans athletes) is a minority as it really has no statistical meaning.
I think the whole incident with this track child was like one over a million and I feel so bad. Can you imagine working so hard all your season and win first place, and that’s what people react instead of congratulating and supporting? Like, “you won because you’re a guy.” It doesn’t suit me.
Anonymous student, second year student, Lycée unnamed in Maine
I am a trans man. I am not an athlete currently, but I did softball for 10 years and the fight for two.
What I feel about trans people and trans children, especially in sport is that I support all my heart. I may be a little biased because I am trans. But also, sport does not concern your direct identity. They are who you want to be and what you are trying to do. When you go out on the field, you are there to hit the ball and win. Your gender identity has no influence on this subject.
Many attempts to separate trans people, to withdraw them from public spaces and conversations, it is an attempt to put them in a story that we are not like everyone else, that trans children are not like all other children. They are something else. They were influenced by the media.
Even if I knew I was trans when I was 10, I hadn’t heard of the word. I know a bunch of children who had never heard of speech. They were not influenced, it is just a fact of their identity.
It is not a biological advantage, in my personal opinion. I think it is because (opponents) try to make it transgender a bad thing, when it is exactly the opposite. It’s a good thing. People come in all different types. You can be a different ethnic group or a different sex, and that is what makes people beautiful and what makes humans humans, the fact that we have such a great variation.
These are high school sports. If you try to remove high school students from their sport, you try to make children feel bad to their extent and you try to take something he loves because you have this idea that a person should be.
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