After months of defections by renegade school boards from affirmative state policies for transgender students in Maine, the Maine Human Rights Commission is suing five school districts for violating state law.The first school district to revolt broke with state policy in April, denying transgender student-athletes the opportunity to participate in school sports. The superintendent of the district in a rural area in Northeastern Maine was explicit at the time, stating the school board sought to align itself with the presidents executive orders Keeping Men Out of Womens Sports and Defending Women From Gender Ideology, issued in the first weeks after his return to the White House. Related Parents demanded that a trans child be banned from sports. The town rejected their request. Four other school districts followed suit through October, all of them urged on by a right-wing parents rights coalition, the Maine Education Initiative. The group stalked school board meetings and provided sympathetic board members with cut-and-paste policy proposals, social media posts, and workshops promoting their discriminatory anti-trans objectives.All of the new policies parrot the administrations order recognizing only two sexes: biological male and biological female, according to the court filing. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The lawsuit, filed on Monday in Kennebec County Superior Court, asks a judge to order the districts to repeal what the commission describes as discriminatory policies, the Bangor Daily News reports.The school board revolt against the states inclusive policies followed Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) very public confrontation with the president at the White House in February over trans student-athletes in her state. Citing the Maine Human Rights Act, Mills said shed see him in court. A lawsuit by the Department of Justice challenging Maines inclusive interpretation of Title IX, which conflicts with the administrations own definition, is scheduled for trial in April.Maine Human Rights Commission Executive Director Kit Thomson Crossman didnt say in a statement if there were specific allegations of discrimination against trans students before the commission, but the suit alleges the school districts discriminatory policies have led to threats of harm for students.In one case, the commission said it received a copy of an email in which an adult expressed the desire to make an example out of a piece of sh*t tr***y in the third grade, and wished the child and his parents would get in a car fire, according to the complaint. School board meetings have been rife with discriminatory and threatening language from speakers about students they believe are competing on sports teams that dont align with their biological sex, the lawsuit states. One meeting descended into chaos when anti-trans protesters stripped to their underwear.The recent policies create a hostile educational environment for gender-nonconforming students in each of their respective public school districts and throughout the State of Maine, two lawyers for the commission wrote in the filing. The commissions argument over the legality of the school districts policies relies in part on a 2014 ruling by Maines Supreme Judicial Court that states schools cannot prevent transgender students from using a restroom that matches their gender identity because it would violate the Maine Human Rights Act. The commission holds that this same nondiscrimination applies to sports teams, as well. While the suit points to the school boards actions inflaming tensions among the broader community of school districts in the state, Maines anti-trans animus has slowed recently.The Maine Education Initiative failed to flip several school boards in Novembers elections, while just days later, the select boardin St. George, Maine, voted against banning a trans student-athlete from competing with a girls recreational basketball team.The Maine Education Initiatives next target is the 2026 election ballot, where they hope to place an initiative erasing transgender student rights statewide.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.