'Maine Girl Dads' gather over 60K signatures for initiative to ban trans athletes from girls' sports

BRUNSWICK, MAINE: A band of fathers in Maine is carrying on its crusade to keep girls’ sports only for girls. 

The group, known as "Maine Girl Dads," rolled into Brunswick on Saturday, November 15, with a drive-thru setup. Folks could swing by, sign their names, and help push an initiative that would ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports, according to WMTW.

The issue of transgender athletes in women’s competitions has been blowing up coast to coast, putting female athletes in the tough spot of deciding whether to compete against biological males in their own events.

'Maine Girl Dads' collect signatures statewide 

WMTW reported that the same people behind Protect Girls’ Sports in Maine were also steering Saturday’s signature-collecting push. It’s a statewide effort to get the measure in front of voters.

“If the group gets 68,000 signatures by February, the initiative, ‘An Act to Designate School Sports Participation and Facilities by Sex,’ will go to voters in November 2026,” the outlet reported.

So far, the momentum is high. In a video posted on Thursday, one member of Maine Girl Dads said the push is “going amazing" and that they’d already chalked up more than 60,000 signatures.

“Are you interested in signing our petition to designate school sports as male, female, or coed? Visit one of our four locations this Saturday morning!” an X (formerly Twitter) post was captioned.

According to WMTW, “The referendum would require all schools to designate sports teams, bathrooms and locker rooms by gender: male, female or co-ed.”

Trump vs Janet Mills

Back in February, things got especially heated when President Donald Trump clashed with Maine Gov Janet Mills (D-ME) over her refusal to comply with his executive order aimed at protecting women’s sports. The moment played out in front of everyone at the Governors' Working Session at the White House.

“You better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding,” Trump warned her. “We’ll see you in court,” Mills shot back.

“Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one,” Trump said. “And enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”

Washington actually followed through. Attorney General Pam Bondi later announced a lawsuit against Maine over the transgender sports controversy.

The complaint read, “By prioritizing gender identity over biological reality, Maine’s policies deprive girl athletes of fair competition, deny them equal athletic opportunities, and expose them to heightened risks of physical injury and physiological harm.”

Bondi suggested that Maine was backing the Joe Biden-era spin on Title IX, which opens the door for transgender athletes in female competitions. “They must not be reading the same Title IX we’re reading,” she quipped when announcing the lawsuit last month.

Tensions boil over in local schools

In October, three activists stripped down to their underwear during a school board meeting to protest the district’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports and access female locker rooms. 

According to the "Maine Girl Dads" website, the group “is a coalition of dads (8,000 of us and counting) that have banded together over a common cause — to protect the dignity, opportunity, and privacy of our daughters. Simply put, we want districts across Maine to re-institute sex-based policies in school & sport. No more males in female spaces nor sports.”