AUGUSTA, Maine — The battle over girls’ sports, school bathrooms, locker rooms, and the meaning of sex under Maine law is headed back before state officials Tuesday, as opponents of the Maine Girl Dads ballot initiative seek to block the measure from reaching voters in November.
A hearing is scheduled for May 12, 2026, on challenges to the citizen initiative known as “An Act to Designate School Sports Participation and Facilities by Sex.” The proposal was advanced by Protect Girls Sports in Maine, the ballot committee associated with the Maine Girl Dads movement.
If approved by voters, the measure would require Maine public schools to designate competitive sports, bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers by sex, male, female, or co-ed, based on the sex listed on a child’s original birth certificate.
The initiative has become one of the most closely watched ballot fights in Maine, putting parents, lawmakers, school officials, civil rights advocates, and national political figures on a collision course over transgender student policies and whether Maine law should prioritize gender identity or biological sex in school athletics and private facilities.
The Secretary of State’s Office announced in March that the citizen initiative had been found valid after the campaign submitted 8,067 petition forms with 79,692 signatures, of which 71,033 were certified as valid. The petitions had been in circulation since Nov. 3, 2025.
But the measure is now facing a legal challenge over the validity of the signatures. Maine election officials are scheduled to consider that challenge at the May 12 hearing, after opponents filed objections seeking to keep the proposal off the November ballot.
At the heart of the proposal is a straightforward but politically explosive question: Should Maine schools be required to separate sports and private facilities by biological sex, or should the state continue its current approach allowing transgender students to participate and access facilities consistent with their gender identity?
The Secretary of State’s draft ballot question asks voters whether they want to change civil rights and education laws to require public schools to restrict access to bathrooms and sports based on the gender listed on a child’s original birth certificate and allow students to sue schools. The public comment period on that wording closed May 7.
Supporters say the measure is about fairness, privacy, and safety for girls. Opponents say it would roll back protections for transgender students and invite lawsuits against Maine schools.
Leyland Streiff, principal officer of the Protect Girls Sports in Maine Ballot Committee and a leader of Maine Girl Dads, told lawmakers in April that the proposal should not be dismissed as a political culture-war fight.
“Today isn’t about what so many call a culture war,” Streiff said in testimony submitted on April 14. “Today is about restoring and protecting the sex-based civil rights of all Maine’s children and ultimately ending the regressive, sexist, discrimination that is taking place today in our schools.”
Streiff said the bill would require competitive sports to be designated as male, female, or co-ed, and would require bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers to be designated by sex. He said the proposal defines sex as a person’s “biological status as male or female as recorded at birth.”
“Our bill is inclusive, fair, and safe,” Streiff said. “Everybody plays; nobody is banned. Sports and private spaces are simply designated by the innate, immutable trait — and protected class — that every human shares — our Sex.”
The issue became a ballot question after supporters concluded that Maine’s political and educational institutions would not change course on their own. The campaign gathered signatures through the citizen initiative process, forcing the Legislature to either adopt the proposal, reject it, or send it to voters.
A public hearing was held in April on the measure, listed as LD 2239, where lawmakers heard testimony from both supporters and opponents. The Legislature had the opportunity to enact the proposal directly, but barring legislative action, the question is set to go to voters if it survives the signature challenge.
The debate has also become part of a broader national fight over Title IX, girls’ sports, and transgender participation in school athletics. Maine has already been at the center of that dispute, with the Trump administration previously challenging the state over its policy allowing transgender athletes to compete on teams aligned with their gender identity.
For supporters of the Maine Girl Dads initiative, the ballot question represents a chance for parents and voters to override state officials and restore what they see as common-sense, sex-based protections in schools.
For opponents, it represents an attempt to write discrimination into law and target transgender students through a statewide referendum.
Either way, the May 12 hearing could determine whether the question ever reaches the ballot.
If it does, Maine voters will decide in November whether the state’s schools must designate sports teams and private facilities by biological sex, a decision that could reshape civil rights law, school policy, and one of the most emotional political debates in the state.
The hearing is open to the public and will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday in Room 127 of the Maine State House in Augusta. For Mainers who cannot attend in person, the Secretary of State’s Office said the proceeding will be livestreamed on the department’s YouTube page.
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