Two Maine Schoolgirls Speak Out About Facing Transgender Athletes as Federal Civil Rights Complaint Is Planned

Two Maine high school juniors spoke out on Monday about competing against transgender athletes, describing their experience and urging officials to protect their opportunities, as their attorney announced plans for a federal civil rights complaint that day.

Reagan Wilson is a junior at Fryeburg Academy, and Morgan Clark is a junior and varsity soccer captain at Windham High School. They addressed a "Protect Girls Sports" news conference at the Maine State House in Augusta, alongside advocates seeking a statewide vote on sex-based eligibility rules.

Wilson said many girls and women were discovering the crushing disappointment that comes from being beaten in their own sports by males who, in her view, should never have been allowed to compete in the first place.

Wilson said she has competed in swimming, cross-country, indoor and outdoor track, soccer and softball, and has faced transgender competitors across multiple seasons. She said that during her cross-country season she competed against a biological male in many of her races, and most recently competed against a male playing on an all-girls soccer team. She said this was unacceptable and had deprived her and many other girls of equal opportunity to compete and win.

Clark said she has played soccer in Maine since she was 4. She said that last year this was something she only saw online, but now it was something she was seeing on her own field, and that if it could happen to her it could happen to anyone.

Clark pointed to an October tie against a team her side had easily outranked in past years, a team she said had a male athlete. Windham played South Portland to a 1-1 draw on 1 October. The Portland Press Herald reported that South Portland finished the previous season 3-9-2 and 14th in the regional Heal point standings.

A draft complaint identifies a transgender player on South Portland's girls' soccer team as the focus of the athletes' allegations. A scoring chart supplied for the planned complaint credited the player with 15 goals and 10 assists through South Portland's 27 October playoff game.

The draft alleges that Maine's eligibility policies deprive female athletes of equal competitive opportunities. It also describes Wilson's previous experiences in cross-country and indoor track and field.

At Monday's news conference, Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Tavia Bruxellas McAlister said the organisation would file a Title IX complaint that day on the girls' behalf with the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.

The draft seeks an investigation of the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals' Association, the South Portland School Department and the Windham Raymond School District, along with changes to eligibility policies and remedies for alleged past violations.

Both Windham and South Portland were eliminated in regional semifinals on Friday, ending the possibility of another meeting during this year's playoffs. The draft says both girls intend to play varsity soccer again next year and expect to face the South Portland athlete.

Maine's policy dispute with the federal government predates the girls' planned complaint. The Education Department announced a Title IX noncompliance finding against Maine in March 2025, and the Justice Department sued the state's education department the following month over transgender participation in girls' sports.

Maine officials and the Maine Principals' Association have defended their approach by citing the Maine Human Rights Act, which protects against gender-identity discrimination. The association's published policy allows transgender students to compete according to either their birth sex or their gender identity, but not both.

In June, the Supreme Court upheld state restrictions on transgender participation in girls' and women's sports. The Court expressly left unresolved whether schools may allow transgender athletes to participate on female teams, the separate question underlying Maine's dispute.

The athletes appeared as referendum organisers announced another attempt to put restrictions before Maine voters. Leyland Streiff, principal officer of the Protect Girls Sports in Maine ballot committee and a leader of Maine Girl Dads, said the group was submitting 4,836 additional signatures toward a place on the 2027 ballot.

Its earlier petition fell 532 valid signatures short of qualifying for this year's election after a legal challenge and review. Additional signatures would require state validation. The proposal would base eligibility for designated school teams and access to bathrooms, locker rooms and other private spaces on sex recorded on students' original birth certificates, and would also allow students to sue over qualifying violations.

Clark said she hopes the referendum effort helps girls like her and her friends play the sport they love fairly and safely.