(LifeSiteNews) – Democrat leaders in Maine have gained national attention for sparring with the Trump administration’s war on “woke” government programs and now a new review highlights the extent of the Pine Tree State’s activist spending.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring school athletic programs to limit female-specific teams to actual females in order to continue receiving Title IX funds, among other moves against government support for transgender activism and identity politics. Maine was thrust into the spotlight of the issue when Trump told Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills at a White House event, “you better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding.”
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights subsequently opened an investigation into Maine’s compliance with the administration’s take on Title IX, citing the case of a “transgender” pole vaulter who gained a competitive advantage by switching to the girls’ team.
On March 3, Campus Reform published a report detailing various ways the Maine Department of Education spends its education dollars, including $358.4 million in K-12 school subsidies it receives from the feds. The first is a “Welcoming Schools” guide prepared by the LGBT activist Human Rights Campaign Foundation on how to explain LGBT terms, including “queer,” “pansexual,” “gender expansive,” and “nonbinary” to elementary school students.
Second is another HRC handout, this time on how to incorporate LGBT themes “across the curriculum,” even in music, physical education, and math. A third document, also from HRC, suggests lesson and art projects about animals such as the Chimera butterfly as a pretext for introducing the concept of non-binary gender to children as young as kindergarten.
Yet another HRC tool is meant to convey gender fluidity with the “Gender Snowperson,” a diagram in the vein of the notorious “Gender Elephant,” “Gender Unicorn,” and “Genderbread Person.” The Snowperson’s express purpose is to convince children that “there are many ways to be a girl, boy, both or neither” (emphasis added), and that “gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and sex assigned at birth are not binaries, but spectrums.”
Maine’s education bureaucracy also uses resources from the LGBT activist group GLSEN, such as a document notifying teachers it is “important to ensure you’re calling all students by the name and pronouns they’re most comfortable with, even if they don’t align with the name and gender marker on the school roster,” including a handout for students to fill out to make their wishes known. Another group, the Kaleidoscope Youth Center, offers a guide on “Creating an Inclusive Classroom,” including to “always intervene” when hearing so-called “homophobic” statements from students, decorating the classrooms with LGBTQ “ally” paraphernalia, infusing lessons with “diversity,” and more.
The Maine DOE even recommends online guides to “TV Shows with LGBTQ+ Characters” (including drag queen RuPaul), and links to GLSEN “safe space” kits, featuring guides, stickers, and posters.
Not all of the material the report found was sexuality-related, however. Maine DOE also promotes “Climate Justice” activism, including through a “Greening Curriculum” guidance and a $650,000 grant program.
Many far-left uses of taxpayer dollars are currently under review by the Trump administration, including pro-abortion and pro-censorship activity through USAID, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda” through the National Science Foundation, and billions to left-wing “green energy” nonprofits through the Environmental Protection Agency.
The new U.S. Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) website currently claims credit for a total estimated savings of $105 billion, although there are questions if those savings will truly materialize unless codified by Congress. Currently, they threaten to be canceled out by a congressional budget plan that is estimated to add $3.4 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.
