DOJ Demands Maine Schools Share Trans Youth’s Personal Information

The Maine Principal’s Association (MPA) is fighting back against a DOJ subpoena for sensitive information on their trans student-athletes. According to Them, in April, the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) was sued by the DOJ, which claimed that Maine’s public schools infringed on Title IX because they allowed transgender students to participate on sports teams matching their gender identity—not their assigned sex at birth.

Due to refusing to sign a DOJ resolution agreement, the MPA was subpoenaed in the MDOE case on August 29. Through this, the MPA was ordered to provide a 23-point list of requests laid out in the subpoena. The administration requested not only information regarding state-student athlete policies and MPA leadership, they also requested trans student athletes’ personal records—which the MPA asserted that they do not have. Also demanding “all complaints, concerns, praise, or reports received by the MPS from school districts, parents, students, educations, or community members.”

For a party that is so insistent on having their private information protected, they are always excited to invade the privacy of trans people.

This would be thousands of documents, thus the MPA argued that these requests are “irrelevant, ambiguous, overboard, unduly burdensome, and not proportional,” to the case. In an ABC News statement, James Belleau, the attorney representing the MPA claimed that the organization would comply with document requests, but not those that would not compromise students’ identifiable personal information.

This case is not isolated, the Trump Administration has attacked several other states with this exact same Title IX claim. This subpoena reflects clearly—as this administration has been shoving down our throats—that they are hellbent on attacking trans people, even trans children, because they evidently have no shame.

Despite it being proven that banning trans athletes from sports increases the likelihood of depression and suicide, the Trump administration continues to push the baseless claim that cis students will suffer because of trans student participation.