Schrödinger’s Women’s Sports: Simultaneously Existential and Irrelevant, According to Democrats

For years, Democrats have treated women’s sports like Schrödinger’s cat—both critically important and completely irrelevant, depending on the political agenda of the day.

Women’s sports are sacred, untouchable, and a cornerstone of equality when they fight for Title IX funding. But when biological men want to compete, suddenly, women’s sports are an outdated social construct—an unfortunate casualty in the march toward “progress.”

It was a paradox that worked for them—until 2024.

The transgender issue, particularly its impact on women’s sports, became a defining wedge in the presidential election. Understanding that common sense still resonates with voters, Trump’s campaign put it front and center. Democrats, insulated by media sycophants and activist pressure, chose to die on the hill of biological men in women’s sports.

And they paid for it.

A national exit poll found that 70% of voters said Trump’s stance against transgender participation in women’s sports was critical to their vote, with 6% saying it was their top issue.

In battleground states, Trump’s “Kamala is for They/Them, President Trump is for You” ad flooded the airwaves thousands and thousands of times, especially during sporting events. The ad, which hammered Harris’s support for gender-altering surgery for prisoners, became a cultural lightning rod.

The election results confirmed the obvious: voters had had enough.

In short, they/them lost the election.

And now, Maine is where the battle continues.

As Maine Goes, So Goes Blue America

For decades, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation” reflected the state’s historical role as a political bellwether. But now? It’s a warning—if the Pine Tree State can defy Title IX protections and get away with it, other blue states will follow suit.

So, Maine has become a pivotal battlefield in the fight to restore fairness to women’s sports. The left has chosen it as their test case, and the Biden-era radicalism is on full display—from allowing biological men to dominate girls’ athletics to pushing LGBTQ+ ideology into K-12 classrooms.

But there’s one problem: Maine is also where the federal government is finally fighting back.

In an unprecedented move, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has launched a formal compliance review of the University of Maine’s transgender sports policy. Since UMaine is a land grant institution—this is a direct strike at the heart of woke overreach that’s been allowed to fester in American athletics.

And it comes with teeth. President Trump has threatened to withhold federal education funding if Maine continues to flout Executive Order 14201—“Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” The message is simple: Take the King’s Dime, Follow the King’s Law.

Maine’s K-12 public schools receive roughly $250 million in federal funding annually. On top of that, the University of Maine gets over $100 million from the USDA.

That puts the total federal funding at risk at over $350 million—a massive number of Benjamins for Vacationland.

If Maine insists on sacrificing fairness for ideological conformity, Trump has made it clear: The money stops flowing.

And if Maine’s radical defiance succeeds, expect other blue states to follow.

Maine’s Education Priorities: Indoctrination Over Instruction

With looming federal funding cuts for defying Title IX protections, it’s crucial to scrutinize where the state’s Department of Education is directing taxpayer dollars. 

A recent investigation by Campus Reform exposes just how deep the ideological programming runs in Maine’s K-12 system— and it’s deeper than the North Maine Woods. Instead of prioritizing traditional academics, the state’s education leaders are embedding radical gender and identity politics into classrooms, starting as early as kindergarten.​

Among the taxpayer-funded programs highlighted in the report:

• “Defining LGBTQ+ Words for Elementary Students”: Teaching children terms like “transgender,” “non-binary,” and “pansexual.”​
• “Non-Binary Animals” Lesson: Encouraging young children to draw “non-binary butterflies” to illustrate gender fluidity.​
• “Gender Snowperson” Activity: A lesson for third to eighth graders using a snowman to teach gender identity and pronouns.​ Dear readers, I will use “snowperson” when hell freezes over.
• LGBTQ+ in Math Problems: Modifying word problems to include same-sex parents, ensuring math is “inclusive.”​
• Safe-Space Kits & Classroom Posters: Providing teachers with LGBTQ+ allyship materials, rainbow stickers, and pronoun-using guides.​
• Climate Justice Indoctrination: Teaching that climate change “disproportionately affects marginalized communities”—which, for Maine, likely means Quebec—and instructing children to “channel their emotions” into climate activism.

Instead of ensuring students are academically prepared for the future, Maine’s education system has become a social engineering experiment funded by taxpayers.

Hypocrisy in Action

And nowhere was that more evident than in the U.S. Senate on March 3rd.

That’s when Senate Democrats blocked the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, killing a bill that enshrined fundamental fairness in women’s athletics.

Their favored excuse? They claim transgender athletes are “so rare” that the bill was unnecessary.

Yet they fight like their hair’s on fire to protect the “right” of biological men to compete in women’s sports.

This raises two possibilities: One is that this isn’t about fairness or inclusion but control. The other is that they feel compelled to prostrate themselves before one of their constituencies.

The Democrats aren’t worried about transgender participation being rare. They are uneasy about losing a cultural foothold—and, more importantly, shedding donors and voters.

They must know this issue is a political loser. But they’re too deep into the ideological trenches—fighting a war of attrition—to retreat now.

And at this point, isn’t that the Democrats’ brand?

Endless wars of attrition.

They don’t win debates. They don’t persuade. They grind down the opposition, one institution at a time, until only their orthodoxy remains.

And that’s why, in states like Maine, they’re taking drastic measures to silence anyone who challenges them.

When in Doubt, Attack the Messenger

Rather than address the fundamental unfairness of their policies, Maine Democrats punished dissent, as all desperate regimes do.

Their target? Representative Laurel Libby.

Libby’s crime? Posting side-by-side images of a male athlete finishing fifth in the boys’ pole vault last year, then—presto!—winning first place in the girls’ division this year.

And that was enough to send Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau into a meltdown.

Fecteau reacted like a scalded Maine Coon Cat, lashing out with performative outrage. Instead of explaining why Title IX protections should be tossed aside for gender ideology, he did what every Democrat does when backed into a corner—he played the victim card.

Rather than defend the obvious inequity (I’m sure it grates the progressives to see that word here), the Maine House—in an act of pure authoritarianism—voted to censure and silence Libby, stripping her of her right to vote or speak on the floor.

With Maine’s lower chamber nearly evenly divided, this move didn’t just target Libby—it disenfranchised thousands of her constituents. The same people who scream that “every vote must count” just erased the voice of every voter in her district.

But it won’t stop with Libby.

By making an example out of her, Maine Democrats have sent a chilling message to every Republican in the House—step out of line, and you’re next. One wrong social media post, one challenge to the approved narrative, and the Democrat star chamber will decide if you’re still allowed to represent the people who elected you.

Like women’s sports, protecting democracy and honoring voters’ voices matters—until our Democrat overseers say it doesn’t.

The Political Cost: They/Them Lost. Again.

Simply put, this issue helped define the Democrats in the 2024 presidential election—and it may have cost they/them the election.

Yet, they/them keep making the same miscalculations over and over.

It’s a strange hill to die on, but like Schrödinger’s cat, staying in that box guarantees only one outcome.

Charlton Allen is an attorney, former chief executive officer, and chief judicial officer of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. He is the founder of the Madison Center for Law & Liberty, Inc., editor of The American Salient, and the host of the Modern Federalist podcast. X: @CharltonAllenNC

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