This athlete goes by the name Katie Spencer. He competes for Greely High School. He placed first in the Class B state championship meet on Feb. 17, drawing outrage from advocates for women's sports.
Earlier this month, President Trump signed an executive order titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports." On Friday, the president clashed publicly with the Maine governor, Janet Mills, over her plan not to comply with that executive order.
Trump (to Mills): "Are you not going to comply with it?"
Mills: "We're planning to follow state and federal law."
Trump: "Well, we are the federal law -- and you better [comply] because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't."
Mills: "We'll see you to court."
Trump: "Good, I'll see you in court. I'll look forward to that -- it should be a real easy one."
Following that fiery interchange, the U.S. Department of Education launched Title IX investigations into Maine's DOE and a state school district for allegedly ignoring Trump's EO on transgender athletes in girls' and women's sports.
Clearly not in compliance
MTV8 reported that just three days before Spencer's win, the Maine Principals' Association announced it would keep letting males who identify as transgender compete against women.
AFN talked with Kim Jones, the co-founder of ICONS, the Independent Council on Women's Sports.
"Yeah, we're definitely seeing across the country a lot of boys coming out to compete in girls' sports and just being in complete defiance of the president's executive order, and even in some cases state laws or policies that are in place, and we're seeing it in the Northeast, in the Northwest, in the Midwest, we're seeing it everywhere."
Jones said she thinks we are going to see a lot of pushback, and this it will be up to the executive branch of government to enforce these policies.
"So, this is not unique that Mr. Spencer is taking opportunities and recognition away from women, particularly in high school. The executive order isn't law but carries the weight of the executive branch of government behind it, saying this is how we're going to enforce policy, and the executive order is fully in line with existing federal law.”
Trump said on Thursday that his administration will stop sending Maine federal funding until the state stops allowing men to play on women's teams.
It will take actions like that to bring about compliance nationwide, Jones said.
“I am anxious to see the government take a firm stance on this. We've got a lot of policies across the country that are in direct opposition to the president's executive order which (puts them) in direct conflict with the executive order and federal law. So, this is going to be a problem until we address it head on at high schools and colleges across the country."
Story updated after originally posted to include Trump's exchange with the governor of Maine.
