Maine high school athletics were embroiled in another trans-athlete controversy as state lawmakers have fought against President Donald Trump’s executive order banning biological males from girls and women’s sports.
The latest issue came at the State Nordic Skiing Championships. Soren Stark-Chessa finished in third and fourth place in Class C Freestyle and Class C Classical competitions, respectively, according to the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS).
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A transgender flag waves. (Alexander Pohl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The athlete helped Maine Coast Waldorf to third place in the women’s competition. Stark-Chessa has been one of the top skiers in the state, earning All-Western Maine Conferee honors in girls Nordic skiing during the 2023-24 season, according to the Sun-Journal.
The school’s athletic director, Susan Sonntag, defended Stark-Chessa’s participation against high schools in 2023 in a statement to The Daily Mail. However, Trump’s executive order and his public spat with Maine Gov. Janet Mills put the state’s gender-participation policy under the microscope.
Trump threatened to take away federal funding from Maine schools if the policy of allowing boys to participate in girls’ sports stands. Mills replied that she would see Trump in court over the ruling.
The Maine Principals’ Association’s (MPA) rules stated that a prospective student athlete must “declare their gender identity to their member school if their gender identity differs from the student’s sex assigned at birth.” The rules stated that the school has “sole authority to determine gender identity assignment for the purposes of athletic registration and participation in MPA sponsored events.”
NCAA’S NEW TRANS-PARTICIPATION POLICY IS ‘AS CLEAR AS MUD,’ RILEY GAINES SAYS
(Maine’s transgender athletic policies are under fire.)
Furthermore, “no medical records or official documents shall be requested for required to establish a student’s gender identity.”
The Department of Education launched a Title IX investigation into Maine.
Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby appeared on OutKick’s “The Ricky Cobb Show” earlier this week and called the state’s rules “extreme.”
“That is the policy that Governor Mills is defending against President Trump,” Libby said. “It is so extreme. It is an outlier even among other states that have similar policies. And it’s an extreme position that Mainers don’t support.
“Not only is she supporting this extreme policy, her stance could cost the state $250 million for Maine’s schools and that is money that we need to provide education for Maine kids. It’s a two-for as far as how this hits our state. And it seems like she’s pretty dug in, and President Trump is gonna have to take this all the way through the courts.”
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Libby called the policy “incredibly broad” and pointed to an issue the state has seen recently over a transgender athlete winning a state title in girls’ pole vaulting.
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