Two Maine high school athletes went public Monday with a planned federal civil rights complaint over transgender participation in girls’ sports, standing alongside advocates at the State House in Augusta who are also pushing a new statewide ballot measure on sex-based eligibility rules.
Reagan Wilson, a junior at Fryeburg Academy who has competed in swimming, cross-country, indoor and outdoor track, soccer and softball, and Morgan Clark, a junior and varsity soccer captain at Windham High School, spoke at a news conference announcing the complaint, which attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom said would be filed that day with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
“Many girls and women are discovering the crushing disappointment that comes from being beaten in their own sports by males who should have never been allowed to compete in the first place,” Wilson said.
Wilson said she has faced transgender competitors in multiple seasons. “During my cross-country season, I competed against a biological male in many of my races. Most recently, I competed against a male playing on an all-girls soccer team,” she said. “This is unacceptable and has deprived me and so many other girls of equal opportunity to compete and win.”
Clark, who has played soccer in Maine since age 4, said the issue had moved from something she saw online to something she now encounters directly on the field. “Last year, this sort of thing was something I only saw online, but now it’s something that I’m seeing in my own field,” she said. “If it can happen to me, it can happen to you.”
The South Portland Game
Clark pointed to an October match between Windham and South Portland that ended in a 1-1 tie. “In October, our team tied against a team we’ve easily outranked in past years, a team with a male athlete,” she said. South Portland had finished the previous season 3-9-2 and 14th in the regional Heal point standings, according to the Portland Press Herald.
A draft of the complaint provided to OutKick identifies a transgender player on South Portland’s girls’ soccer team as the focus of the girls’ allegations, crediting that player with 15 goals and 10 assists through the team’s Oct. 27 playoff game. The draft alleges that Maine’s eligibility policies deny female athletes equal competitive opportunities and also details Wilson’s prior experiences in cross-country and indoor track.
The complaint seeks an investigation into 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 rules and remedies for what the girls describe as past violations. Both Windham and South Portland were eliminated in regional semifinal games Friday, closing out the possibility of a rematch this season. The draft complaint states both girls intend to play varsity soccer again next year and expect to face the South Portland athlete once more.
A Broader State Fight
Maine’s dispute with federal authorities predates this complaint. The U.S. Department of Education found Maine out of Title IX compliance in March 2025, and the Justice Department sued the state’s education department the following month over transgender participation in girls’ sports. State officials and the Maine Principals’ Association have defended their stance by citing the Maine Human Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on gender identity. The MPA’s policy lets transgender students compete according to either birth sex or gender identity, but not both.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld state laws restricting transgender participation in girls’ and women’s sports, but it left open the specific question at the center of Maine’s fight: whether schools may allow transgender athletes to compete on female teams at all.
The girls’ announcement came as organizers of a separate ballot effort said they were submitting 4,836 additional signatures in a renewed push to put eligibility restrictions before Maine voters in 2027. Leyland Streiff, principal officer of the Protect Girls Sports in Maine ballot committee and a leader of Maine Girl Dads, said the group’s earlier petition had fallen 532 valid signatures short of qualifying for this year’s ballot after a legal challenge and review. The new signatures still require state validation.
The proposed measure would tie eligibility for designated school teams, as well as access to bathrooms, locker rooms and other private spaces, to the sex recorded on a student’s original birth certificate. It would also give students the right to sue over violations.
“I hope that this referendum helps girls like me and my friends play the sport that we love fairly and safely,” Clark said.
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