Protect Girls Sports in Maine handed in 4,836 more petition signatures in Augusta on Monday, Nov. 2, restarting its drive to put a Maine transgender sports ban before voters in November 2027, WGME reported. “Our democracy will not be stopped. This referendum will be voted on and it will pass,” said Leyland Streiff, the committee’s principal officer.
The measure isn’t on Tuesday’s ballot. Voters in Missouri, Colorado, Washington, Arizona and Nebraska are weighing measures aimed at transgender minors and student athletes, including Washington’s Initiative 638. Maine’s version fell 532 valid signatures short of the 67,682 required, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows ruled in May, and the new batch is meant to close that gap, Maine Morning Star reported in September.
What the Maine Transgender Sports Ban Would Do in Schools
The bill is called “An Act to Designate School Sports Participation and Facilities by Sex.” The ballot question Bellows’ office wrote for it asks: “Do you want to change civil rights and education laws to require public schools to restrict access to bathrooms, other private spaces, and sports, based on the sex on every child’s original birth certificate, and allow students to sue the schools?”
“It’s necessary to put on the ballot because sex-based discrimination is happening right now,” Streiff said when the first signatures went in, Maine Public reported in February.
The Maine Principals’ Association follows the state’s Human Rights Act, which bars gender identity discrimination, so a small number of trans girls have played on girls’ teams, Maine Public reported. When President Donald Trump pressed Gov. Janet Mills over his executive order on trans athletes in February 2025, she told him, “We’ll see you in court,” WMTW reported.
“This proposed law would exclude every transgender kid regardless of their age, sport, or individual circumstances,” Mary Bonauto of GLAD Law said in a March statement from the opposition campaign. EqualityMaine’s executive director, Gia Drew, said in the same statement, “If voters approve it, this measure would open the door to harassment, bullying and abuse of children.”
How 12,542 Rejected Signatures Sank the 2026 Ballot Bid
Bellows certified the petition March 17, and less than two weeks later three Maine voters sued over the signatures, WMTW reported. Her office tossed 12,542 of them after a hearing, some because circulators hadn’t watched voters sign. “Unfortunately, some out-of-state circulators failed to meet certain legal requirements for petitions, resulting in this initiative failing to qualify for the ballot after legal review,” Bellows said May 26.
“We take the integrity of the petitions just as seriously as we take the security of voting,” she said, according to The Associated Press.
In June, a judge in Cumberland County Superior Court sided with her. “The campaign that tried to attack transgender students broke the rules,” said David Farmer, campaign manager for the opposing Campaign for Free and Fair Schools, according to WMTW.
At the state’s highest court, it came down to 1,520 signatures gathered by four paid circulators from out of state who never checked a box agreeing to Maine’s jurisdiction. Christopher Brown, the voters’ lawyer, said 116 other nonresident circulators did check it, Maine Public reported.
“That would be a remarkable result under these circumstances,” the committee’s lawyer, Timothy Woodcock, told the justices July 1, arguing against tossing those names.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled July 10. Without those names, the justices wrote, “the petition fell below the constitutional threshold for an initiative petition to be submitted to the voters of Maine.” They added, “The Secretary thus correctly determined the petition to be invalid,” WMTW reported.
Who’s Behind Protect Girls Sports in Maine?
Most of the money for the first drive, $800,000, came from Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein, Maine Public reported. “These out-of-state billionaires pay for the campaign, but Maine people pay for the fallout,” Farmer said at the time.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, signed the first petition, WMTW reported in November 2025. Her spokesperson told the station that “she signed the petition, but will not be involved in the state referendum campaign.”
Maine Referendum 2027 Hinges on Another Signature Review
The state still has to vet the new signatures. If they hold up, the Legislature gets the first look at the bill before it can go to voters. “We do not want the Legislature to solve this on our behalf,” Streiff said in February, according to Maine Public.
After the July ruling, the committee said in a statement it would “seek clarification of that consent order in federal court,” WMTW reported. In September, the group said that case wouldn’t wrap up before the midterms, Maine Morning Star reported.
Alliance Defending Freedom has also filed a Title IX complaint for two Maine high school girls, naming the state, the Maine Principals’ Association and the girls’ school districts, WGME reported.
Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, whom the Maine House censured last year over a post naming a trans athlete, said in May that Mainers would get a vote in 2026 or 2027 either way. “Maine voters deserve to have the opportunity to vote on this measure to make their voices heard,” she said, according to WGME.
