The group behind an effort to ban transgender students from sports teams and private spaces in Maine claims they’ve gathered more than the 82K signatures required to get a statewide ballot question to voters this fall, according to the Portland Press Herald.

Reports the Portland Press Herald:

The group behind the effort said it collected over 82,000 signatures from Maine voters — about 14,000 more than the number required to put a citizen initiative on the ballot. The signatures must now be reviewed and certified by the Department of the Secretary of State before the referendum is approved to appear on the ballot in November.

“We Mainers have found a solution where the Maine Principals’ Association and our state Legislature refused to,” Leyland Streiff, lead petitioner and co-lead of the organization Maine Girl Dads, said during a news conference at the State House on Monday. “Their inaction and silence are at odds with what their constituents want. Voters see this as a commonsense issue, not a political one.” 

The referendum would require Maine public school students to play on teams matching their sex as it appears on their birth certificates. Girls could participate on a boys team if no female team is available to them in a given sport.

The proposal also would require students to use restrooms, locker rooms and other private spaces based on the sex they were assigned at birth. 

It follows intense debate in Maine and nationally about the rights of transgender athletes. President Donald Trump issued an executive order last year aimed at barring transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports, relying on a new interpretation of federal Title IX law. His administration is currently suing Maine over the state’s policies allowing transgender athletes to participate in sports in a way that aligns with their gender identity.

The Maine Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity in all educational and extracurricular activities, has been cited by state officials as the basis for the current policies.

The referendum states that the separation of athletic teams, bathrooms and locker rooms would not constitute unlawful discrimination as defined in the Maine Human Rights Act. 

Republican lawmakers in Maine brought forward several proposals last year to roll back the rights of transgender students, including measures that would have required students to use bathrooms that align with the sex assigned to them at birth. None of those proposals passed in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

Read the complete Portland Press Herald story here.

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