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A team of four women from athlete students from almost Isle High School helped direct a march on the Maine du Capitol de la State building in Augusta last week.
They went to Spar with the Democrats of the State Legislative Assembly on three bills that would prohibit the biological men from the sports of girls – a problem that sent their state and sport seasons in chaos in 2025.
For three of them, it was their first political gathering, and they occupied the front of the stage. They had to browse pro-transplant counter-demonstrators outside the building and the disdainful liberal legislators inside.
“It was a bit intimidating knowing that they do not have the same beliefs as us,” said Hailey Himes, a first protester, at PK Press Club Digital.
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Maine Himes athletics athletics (Thanks to Hailey Himes)
But Himes said that she had realized that she had to join the fight to protect the sports of the girls of Trans athletes when her English teacher attributed an essay on the subject on March 12.
Only one month before that, Himes and other female athletes witnessed the pole jump jumping which plunged their condition into a national conflict, when a Trans athlete won first place in the pole jump for girls for Greely High School in early February.
“I looked at this male vaulter stand on the podium and we were all like watching, we were like” we are almost sure that she is not a girl. There is no way that it is a “” said Himes. “It was really discouraging, especially for girls on the podium not in the first place. So it motivated me to fight for them.”
So, Himes, as well as his athletics teammates, Lucy Cheney and Carrlyn Buck, paraded on Augusta, following the example of his compatriot of the almost, Cassidy Carlisle athlete, who has already participated in two steps in Augusta and trips to Washington, DC, to meet the leaders of the GOP on the issue.
The group had acquired a lot of experience in the treatment of controversies involving a trans athlete near his home for years together. Years earlier, the girls saw their high school shaken by a situation involving a trans athlete, when a biological man joined the girl’s tennis team.
“We have all heard of friends about it and none of us do tennis, so it was just a little word of mouth,” said Cheney. “At this point, we could not do anything because the administration agreed to let them play, so we really had to accept it, and really no one else in the team really wanted to accept it, but they had to do it.”
The athletic athlete of the girls of Maine Lucy Cheney
The four girls added that he quickly became one of the most discussed subjects of the almost Isle high school when he first arrived, and he continued throughout the years of school 2022-23 and 2023-24, before obtaining the Trans athlete last summer.
Now, this year, they all had to compete under the shadow of a national conflict between their state and President Donald Trump because Governor Janet Mills and the democratic majority have committed to keeping the trans athletes in sports for girls.
The risks of position of Mills cost the federal financing of secondary schools of the State, while leaving Carlisle, Himes, Cheney, Buck and their teammates confronted with the anxiety of competing against trans athletes in the state elimination series.
The Maine shaken by the domination of trans athletes during the meeting on the track of the girls in the midst of a continuous legal conflict with Trump
On Thursday, when the four teenagers entered the Capitol, they found themselves face to face with the individuals who fought to keep the trans athletes in their sports. The democratic majority of the Maine legislative assembly has actively and aggressively resisted the Trump administration for months in relation to the executive decree of the president “mennts of women of female sport”.
But now, three bills supported Republican – LD 868, LD 233 and LD 1134 – were on their own parquet to reverse its policy, and more than a dozen athletes of girls from Maine High School were there to fight the Democrats for that.
“They definitely asked much fewer questions to the people with whom they do not agree that the people with whom they agreed, and you could say that they did not feel as compassionate,” said Cheney about Democratic leaders.
“They became emotional just at the time [pro-trans speakers] Shared, and it seemed to be really dealing with them, and they wanted to support them, and that did not feel as much as they wanted to hear our side. “”
Buck said that when the Democrats had come to them with questions, they seemed “hostile”.
“They just seemed more hostile to our testimonies when they asked questions,” said Buck. “It was that a lot of questions were harassing.”
Maine Carrlyn Buck athletics athletics
However, adolescents made sure to let everyone know in the room what they were facing, while the trans athletes participating in the Maine’s qualifying series threaten to upset their whole season.
A trans-identifying athlete that contributed to the North Yarmouth Academy in Yarmouth, in Maine, recently dominated female events of 800 meters and 1600 meters during the meeting of Poland-Nya-Yarmouth-Seacoast, which aroused national indignation.
“For my teammates, and some of my best friends from the team who are in events with [the trans athletes]It is really regrettable for them, and just our team as a whole because these points will have an impact on the classification of our team, “said Himes, adding that another local girl suggested that her parents do not allow her to compete in the same event with a trans athlete.
Buck added: “These are not only the points, it is also that our teammates will feel discouraged when they are placed in an event against them, because they will already know that the result is decided, by playing against a biological man who is biologically stronger than them, so they have no chance.”
Carlisle is already very familiar with this feeling of defeat, having lost against the same athlete who dominated the meeting of Poland-Nya-Yarmouth-Seacoast during racing and ski competitions, dating from 2023. In addition to that, she first had to make changes in the same locker room with a man in seventh year when a trans student was in her gym class.
Maine Girl involved in the battle of Trans athletes reveals how state policies harm her childhood and sport career
Cassidy Carlisle of Maine Secondary School in a track event. (Thanks to Cassidie Carlisle)
But even now, as an ascending crusader against the inclusion trans into the sports of girls, having attended the marches, meetings of the general prosecutor of the GOP and even a press conference of the Ministry of Justice announcing a trial against the Maine on the issue, she says that she always has a transgender friend.
“I communicate with them almost daily, we never have negative interactions,” said Carlisle. “For people who mean that we do not accept, this is not the problem. We have no problem in general with trans people. We have a problem when it starts to have an impact on our lives.”
Carlisle saved its resentment, not for trans people, or even for trans athletes, but for mills.
“She looks directly at us and says,” I don’t care about you “,” said Carlisle. “When I vote next time, I will absolutely take this into consideration.”
“Our schools need federal funding,” said Carlisle. “So for [Mills]Now she doesn’t just look at the athletes of Maine’s girls and says, “I don’t really care about you”. She looks at the students of Maine and says, “I don’t care about you and I don’t care that your school gets funding, because I will choose a fight that really doesn’t have to be chosen.” »»
The DoJ accused the state of “flouting openly and challenging the anti-discrimination federal law by applying policies that force girls to compete with boys in sports competitions designated exclusively for girls”, according to a complaint obtained by PK Press Club Digital.
Mills, the Maine Ministry of Education and the Association of Maine Directors strongly supported the continuation of allowing the inclusion trans into the sports of girls through the State, citing the law on human rights of Maine as the previous one to determine the eligibility for gender.
Meanwhile, two Maine school districts have already taken matters into their own hands, because MSAD n ° 70 and RSU n ° 24 have each moved to modify their own policies in order to keep the trans athletes outside the sports of girls.
Athletes of the girls of the almost Isle, left -wing, Carrlyn Buck, Hailey Himes, Cassidy Carlisle and Lucy Cheney. (PK Press Club Digital)
And in addition to these school districts and young women like Carlisle, Buck, Himes and Cheyney, Mills and Democrats can ultimately end up facing more than external resistance.
A survey on The American Parents Coalition noted that out of approximately 600 registered voters from Maine, 63% said that the participation of school sports should be based on organic sex, and 66% agreed that it was “fair to restrict the sports of women to organic women”.
The survey also revealed that 60% of residents would support a voting measure limiting participation In Sports of women and girls at Biological women. This included 64% of the self -employed and 66% of parents with children under the age of 18.
But so far, the governor has remained firm to oppose Trump on the issue, even at the cost of legal costs funded by taxpayers.
“I am happy to go to court and plead the questions that are raised in this court complaint,” Mills told journalists in April.
