and, I hope, NOT misogynist. The other Dem candidate still has some answering to do in regard to that. That being said, he’d still be better than Susan Collins. Emphasis below is mine.
Maine Governor Janet Mills Comes Out Against Billionaire-Funded Anti-Trans Sports/Bathrooms Referendum
The candidate will be running in a Democratic primary with the goal of unseating Republican Senator Susan Collins.
On Monday, days after Republican Sen. Susan Collins voted in favor of an amendment to Trump’s SAVE Act that would ban transgender students from girls’ sports nationwide, Maine Gov. Janet Mills—who is running in a Democratic primary to unseat her—came out with a forceful statement in favor of transgender youth in sports. Mills was asked about her position on a new ballot referendum that will likely go before voters this November—which would ban transgender girls from sports, bar transgender students from bathrooms in schools across the state, and carve transgender students out of the Maine Human Rights Act in certain cases. It is Mills’ first time directly opposing the referendum, and a significant case of a Democratic candidate running for a swing seat standing up for transgender people.
“I would not support a ballot measure that demonizes children and demonizes and uses as a political ploy, as the Republicans have done, the right-wing Republicans have done, with this kind of initiative. It targets some of the most vulnerable people in our society,” Mills said at a press conference. “I brought up five daughters in Maine. They all played sports. They should all have an opportunity to play sports. My husband was a coach, a high school coach, and I saw, I always saw in the eyes of those kids, new energy, new feeling about life, a new way to engage in teamwork, to make new friends, and that’s what sports does—gives you a different perspective on life, makes you a better human being.”
Her statement was in response to a referendum from “Protect Girls Sports in Maine,” an anti-transgender organization funded by far-right Republican megadonor and billionaire Richard Uihlein, of Uline office supplies, who donated $800,000 to bankroll the signature drive. The referendum successfully collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot this November. It would define sex for school purposes as “a person’s biological status as male or female recorded at birth on the person’s original birth certificate”—a definition that would bar transgender students’ legal recognition. It would require schools to “maintain separate restrooms, locker rooms, shower rooms, and other private spaces for each sex,” going beyond sports, and would create a transgender sports ban across the state. It would also create a private right of action allowing individuals who encounter transgender students in bathrooms to sue the school that permitted their access—while carving all of these provisions out of the Maine Human Rights Act.
This is not Mills’ first foray into the fight over transgender athletes. In February 2025, Trump singled out Maine at a meeting with Republican governors, threatening to pull federal funding unless the state banned transgender girls from girls’ sports. The next day, Mills confronted Trump at the White House, telling him, “See you in court.” What followed was an unprecedented federal pressure campaign: six federal agencies launched investigations targeting the state—all over a handful of transgender athletes out of roughly 53,000 high school sports participants statewide. When Maine refused to comply, the Department of Justice sued the state in April 2025—that lawsuit is still ongoing.
Mills’ stance in support of transgender athletes is a notable position for a Democratic governor running for a purple Senate seat in an era where well-funded political pundits and organizations have aimed to push Democrats to the right on transgender issues. Her approach stands in stark contrast to that of fellow Democratic Governor California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential contender, who has repeatedly thrown transgender people under the bus. In March 2025, Newsom told conservative activist Charlie Kirk on the debut of his podcast that trans participation in girls’ sports was “deeply unfair.” And just weeks ago, in an interview with Katie Couric, he said he could not see a way for trans women to fairly compete on women’s sports teams—while insisting he was not throwing the community under the bus. Mills, by contrast, is running toward the issue rather than away from it, and doing so in a competitive seat.
Mills, who is term-limited and cannot run for a third consecutive term as governor in 2026, is running against fellow Democrat Graham Platner for the chance to unseat Collins. Platner, for his part, has also been ardently pro-transgender rights. He opposed the referendum as early as November 2025, telling NOTUS that it “targets transgender kids and takes Maine backwards.” After Collins voted for the Tuberville amendment this weekend, Platner criticized her on social media, writing, “At a time when Mainers are dealing with rising gas prices and airport chaos, this is what she’s focused on—attacking kids and taking away your right to vote.” Of the referendum itself, Platner has said, “I think banning people from playing in sports in the gender that they see themselves as and identify as, doing that in a wholesale way, is going to be restrictive of people’s rights. So, I do not think that banning is the answer.”
The Maine Democratic primary is June 9, with the winner facing Collins in the November general election—the same ballot where voters will likely decide the fate of the anti-trans referendum. That means the fight over transgender rights in Maine will play out simultaneously on two tracks: the Senate race, where both Democratic candidates have now staked out firm positions in defense of transgender youth, and the referendum. How both play out could reshape the political calculus around transgender issues for Democrats nationwide.
Scottie's Playtime 
I have a problem envisioning a 5’11” transgender female with the muscles of a sumo wrestler running in a woman’s race of any sort. Our bodies are different, our musculature is different, as are our hormones. Male or not, If you’re transgender you still have the same body type and hormonal level now that you had before you decided to become ‘other’. Im not knocking it, but it puts sports into a whole ‘nother category.
It also works in both ways. A transgender male (girl to boy) has got to have serious problems with locker rooms (think about that carefully), reach, strengths, and stamina.
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Well, I don’t blame you, Judy (beginning with the first sentence above;) I don’t think anybody who’s 5′ 11″ with the muscles of a sumo wrestler is going to try to run competitively (or be allowed to, anyway!)😂 But, I remember that while we’re little kids, we are pretty similarly built. All those embarrassing black-and-white photos of all the neighbor kids running around with no shirts in the sprinklers in the summer…
It’s when the hormones kick in at puberty that the body changes happen. So, hormone therapy is going to cause body development in alignment with the therapy, not the at-birth assigned gender.
Look up some transgender guys sometime, Judy. (I can’t post photos in a comment.) Besides being some fantastic eye candy, I think your concerns about abilities will dissipate.
Now the thing is, transgender guys are going to be in our bathrooms (likely have been before they transitioned, as well) and showers. So, technically, these rules and laws force men to play women’s sports, shower and change in women’s locker rooms, and pee in women’s restrooms (which could also cost for additional janitorial… 😉 ) And when trans women are forced to go where law says they should, they will be in the guys’s spaces. So, technically, these anti-trans laws are achieving what they’re purported to prevent.
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that’s just it. You can’t just accept what someone says they are, without making some serious noises about it. I realize that there are people out there who would pass nicely as the ‘other’ gender, and some who are already there in other ways. The ‘rough and tough” girl who rolls when she walks, has a vocabulary that would embarrass a sailor, and terrifies camp counselors. And yet she identifies as female and will flatten anyone who says differently.
It’s a complex issue and I do try to tread lightly there. The solution might be right in front of us. Accept the differences, and build them their own gender friendly bathroom(s).
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Hi Judy. I liked everything you wrote until you got to the bathroom issue. Why do trans people need separate bathrooms? I don’t know about female bathrooms because I don’t hang out in them. But in male bathrooms we don’t expose our genitalia to each other. At urinals it is a well known male code to keep your eyes to your self and to not look at the person next to you. No one walks around nude or with their junk out. Guys are too sensitive to size jokes to do that. So tell me do women walk around nude in public bathrooms? Do they show what is in their pants to everyone? If someone is in a stall can you see what their sex organ is?
I was at the airport this week as Ron and I picked up his sister. I went to the male bathroom and as I walked in a man with a young girl was in front of me. He explained that it was a boys bathroom but everyone understood that a parent could bring their young girl in so they wouldn’t be alone in either the girls bathroom or daddy in the girls room. I smiled because not one guy reacted to the little girl but kept their eyes to themselves as the man took her into the stall and helped her do her buisness.
I often tell of my first base in Germany in the 1980s. It was a co-ed barracks with one large bathroom per floor. The bathrooms were co-ed also. The door opened up into a room with a row of sinks on two sides. The back wall was all toilet stalls. There was a door on the right side that opened onto a short hallway behind the stalls with individual showers that had an inside changing area and doors that locked from the inside. I could be brushing my teeth next to a woman shaving her armpit hair. I might be shaving next to a woman doing her makeup. No one cared, we never had any incidences of trouble. I don’t see why it can’t be the same in bathrooms all over the US. I don’t care if a woman is in the bathroom with me, I don’t care if a trans man is in the bathroom with me. I am there to use the facilities and I assume they are as well. Hugs
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Hi Judy. The first sentence made me laugh. The rest is just misinformation talking. You wrote, Male or not, If you’re transgender you still have the same body type and hormonal level now that you had before you decided to become ‘other’. That is incorrect and doesn’t match the medical studies on how the body changes under gender afirming care. I recently replied to you with some of the medical science. I can go over it with you again if you like. The fact is what makes our bodies what they are is the chemical soup driven by sex hormones. That is why when those hormones lessen as we age our bodies change, woman can grow facial hair, and men will grow man boobs.
Also I disagree with the issue of locker rooms and bathrooms. Schools and gyms have learned ways to give people privacy in the areas of changing and using toilets including doing what hospitals do with curtains on tracks that can be pulled closed for privacy to free standing partitions. I have not read of trans boys / men being harassed even by teen boys in puberty. I have read of trans girls being harassed and attacked in locker rooms and bathrooms.
In fact there was a case where a trans girl came into the locker room, never changed, and left with their clothing to go to a private bathroom only to have a girl with a vocally anti-trans family accuse the trans girl of exposing themselves fully to her and make lewd comments to her. The investigation found that it never happened, the other girls claimed that the accusing girl tried to recruit them in to also accusing the trans girl like she did. The instructor said she was there and it did not happen. So trans girls were the victims not cis girls, trans boys are not threatened even by horny teens. Says something about stereotypes and how society sees boys and girls. Hugs
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