On Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued letters to officials in California, Maine and Minnesota, threatening legal consequences if states don’t exclude transgender students from women’s sports.
“This Department of Justice will defend women and does not tolerate state officials who ignore federal law,” Bondi said in a statement. “We will leverage every legal option necessary to ensure state compliance with federal law and President [Donald] Trump’s executive order.”
The letters were issued in response to one of Trump’s anti-trans executive orders earlier this month, which prohibits transgender people from participating in women’s sports. While the administration claims the order is intended to “protect opportunities for women and girls,” the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) has called it “another attempt to bully trans people, including children, and misuse the government to enforce sexist gender roles.”
The Education Department has also informed schools that it will interpret and enforce Title IX, a federal law banning sex-based discrimination, based on biological sex. This policy shift has prompted the department to launch multiple civil rights investigations into transgender sports participation policies, which could potentially lead to the withdrawal of federal funding.
One such inquiry was launched on Friday following Trump’s public dispute with Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) during a White House gathering of governors.
“Anyone here from Maine?” the president asked the crowd at the event. “They are still saying they want men to play in women’s sports and I cannot believe that they are doing that… so we’re not gonna give them any federal funding until they clean that up.”
Mills quickly responded: “We’re going to follow the law sir. We’ll see you in court.”
In a statement on Friday, Mills reaffirmed that “the State of Maine will not be intimidated by the president’s threats.” She warned that if Trump attempts to strip federal funding from Maine schools, her administration, along with the attorney general, “will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides.”
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey echoed Mills’s stance, stating that any attempt to cut federal funding over this issue “would be illegal and in direct violation of federal court orders.” He further condemned the administration’s actions, saying, “It is disturbing that President Trump would use children as pawns in advancing his political agenda.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Agriculture (USDA) have also launched investigations into Maine institutions over the state’s noncompliance with Trump’s anti-trans executive order. However, the legal threshold for proving a civil rights violation is high, and federal funding has not been revoked from a school or education agency in decades, according to Politico.
Trump’s anti-trans executive order has also complicated the U.S.’s role as host of the next Summer Olympics, as it restricts visas for transgender female athletes from other nations. In compliance with Trump’s anti-trans sports ban, Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently issued a directive, which is now in effect across all diplomatic and consular posts, requiring immigration officials globally to deny visas to transgender athletes seeking entry into the U.S.
Transgender activist and journalist Erin Reed has described the new policy as “one of the most alarming escalations in the ongoing assault on transgender rights.” She reported that while the policy is framed as a measure to restrict transgender athletes from traveling to the U.S., one provision is extremely broad and may impact all transgender visa applicants. The provision stipulates that “all visas must reflect an applicant’s sex at birth” and grants officials the authority to deny visas based on “reasonable suspicion” that a person may be transgender.
“What began with state-level bans on gender marker updates for driver’s licenses has now expanded into a potential nationwide travel ban on foreign trans entrants who are seeking visas and severe restrictions on those seeking to leave the country,” she warned.
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