(LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ordered a temporary halt to federal funding to the University of Maine System (UMS) over Democrat Gov. Janet Mills’ defiance of new federal rules conditioning such funds on reserving female-specific school athletic programs to actual women.
Last month, 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.
Maine was thrust into the spotlight of the issue when Trump told Mills at a White House event, “you better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding.” His 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.
Now, the Daily Caller reported that on March 10 USM received an email from USDA informing them, “(t)his pause is temporary in nature while USDA evaluates if it should take any follow-on actions related to prospective Title VI or Title IX violations. Please take any necessary actions to effectuate this direction from leadership. This pause will remain in effect until further notice.”
UMS maintains that its athletic programs are “in compliance with relevant State and Federal laws,” and that it has received no further update from USDA since communicating about the initial compliance review on February 26. USDA has not yet publicly commented on the situation.
Mandatory inclusion of gender-confused individuals in opposite-sex sports is promoted as a matter of “inclusivity,” but critics note that indulging “transgender” athletes undermines the original rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place, thereby depriving female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities.
There have been numerous high-profile examples in recent years of men winning women’s competitions, and research affirms that physiology gives males distinct athletic advantages that cannot be fully negated by hormone suppression.
In a 2019 paper published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, New Zealand researchers found that “healthy young men (do) not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks,” and “indirect effects of testosterone” on factors such as bone structure, lung volume, and heart size “will not be altered by hormone therapy;” therefore, “the advantage to transwomen (biological men) afforded by the (International Olympic Committee) guidelines is an intolerable unfairness.”
Critics also argue that forcing girls to share intimate facilities such as bathrooms, showers, or changing areas with members of the opposite sex violates their privacy rights, subjects them to needless emotional stress, and gives potential male predators a viable pretext to enter female bathrooms or lockers by simply claiming transgender status.
Even the left-wing United Nations has acknowledged as much via an October 2024 report by Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem that found that more than 600 female athletes around the world have lost more than 890 medals to men in 29 sports as of March 2024. “To avoid the loss of a fair opportunity, males must not compete in the female categories of sport,” the report concluded.
