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2nd-Place Runner in High School Race Rips Maine GOP Lawmaker for Attacking Trans Winner
"I don't feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points."
May 15, 2025
A high school runner in Maine who finished second to a transgender competitor at a recent track meet said this week that a Republican state lawmaker's "hateful" crusade targeting trans athletes—not the fact that she had to compete against one—dampened her sporting joy.
Anelise Feldman, a freshman at Yarmouth High School in southern Maine, finished second to Soren Stark-Chessa, a multisport standout at rival North Yarmouth Academy, at a May 2 intramural meet.
"I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school's standards," Feldman wrote in a letter to The Portland Press Herald published Wednesday. "I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn't diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race."
"The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn't diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race."
Feldman's letter was prompted by State Rep. Laurel Libby's (R-90) comments during a Fox Newsinterview earlier this month in which the lawmaker, while not naming Stark-Chessa, referred to her accomplishments and accused transgender athletes of "pushing many, many of our young women out of the way in their ascent to the podium."
Feldman stressed: "I don't feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points."
"We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school," she added. "Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren's participation in the girls' track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are."
Maine has found itself at the epicenter of the fight for transgender rights as President Donald Trump's administration renews its first-term campaign to roll them back via policies including: redefining Title IX anti-discrimination law to cancel protection for trans and nonbinary people, trying to reinstate the ban on openly transgender people from military service, ending "X" gender markers on passports, banning federal support for gender-affirming healthcare, pressuring schools to censor lessons and materials about trans and nonbinary people, erasing transgender people and stories from government-run institutions and websites, and much more. Bowing to pressure from Trump, the National Collegiate Athletic Association also banned trans women from competing on female sports teams.
This, as hundreds of anti-trans bills have also been passed or proposed in nearly every state in the nation. Maine, however, has been moving in the opposite direction by expanding an anti-discrimination law to protect transgender student-athletes.
This has made the state a target of the Trump administration. Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills first stoked Trump's ire for defying his threats to cut off federal funding if she did not ban transgender women and girls from female teams, a move that would violate state anti-discrimination law.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state for rebuffing Trump's efforts to ban trans women and girls from scholastic sports. The lawsuit followed the Department of Education's move to cut off federal K-12 funds for Maine and the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) freeze on $100 million in federal funding over the trans athlete issue. The Trump administration also temporarily forced new Maine parents to register their newborns for a Social Security number at a government office rather than at hospitals, a policy quickly reversed amid public outrage.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration quietly settled with Maine, agreeing to scrap its planned cutoff of USDA funding.
"A few months ago, I stood in the White House and, when confronted by the president of the United States, I told him I'd see him in court," Mills triumphantly said following the settlement. "Well, I did see him in court. And we won."
Libby—who is currently banned from voting on legislation until she apologizes for endangering a transgender high school runner by posting a photo of her winning a race without blurring the face—misgendered trans athletes and portrayed them as violent and dangerous during a legislative hearing earlier this week.
"Girls are being asked to accept second place as their ceiling, not because they didn't work hard enough, but because someone else's belief has been elevated above their right to compete fairly and safely," Libby said.
However, the stats don't support her assertion. None of the 10 fastest times ever run by a U.S. high school girl in either the 800 or 1,600-meter races have recorded by a transgender runner. Nor does any trans runner appear on the list of the 10 fastest athletes in either race.
Stark-Chessa's 800 meter time was 2:43, a full 44 seconds behind the all-time high school girls' record of 1:59. Her 1,600 meter time of 5:57 was over a minute-and-a-half slower than the girls' high school record.
Meanwhile, some of the athletes that do appear in the record book—and their parents—have condemned the backlash against trans competitors, who sometimes face open hostility including incitement to violence.
Opponents of trans women and girls in sport often fixate on genitalia and the notion that unsuccessful male athletes decide to "go trans" in order to escape mediocrity in men's sports.
A peer-reviewed 2023 study noted "the disproportionate focus on the relatively small portion of the population who are trans seems based on the belief that [cisgender] men, who cannot succeed in sports among other cis men, would choose to misidentify as trans women to gain an advantage in sports against cis women."
"However, there are no legitimate cases of this occurring," the paper stresssed.
More importantly, research has shown that trans women who undergo testosterone suppression and gender-affirming medical care do not have any biomedical edge over cis women in sports.
Trans youth do, however, face harassment, violence, discrimination, and other barriers to success and even participation in sports and in general scholastic endeavors. According to the 2022 U.S. Trans Survey, 22% of visibly transgender girls were abused so badly they left shool because of it, while another 10% were expelled.
"The idea that women and girls have an advantage
because they are trans ignores the actual conditions of their lives," Chase Strangio and Gabriel Arkels wrote in a myth-busting ACLU explainer.
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Governor Vows to 'Vigorously Defend' Maine From Trump Attack on Trans Women
"This is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a president can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation," said Janet Mills.
Apr 16, 2025
Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills responded Wednesday to a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against the state for defying President Donald Trump's efforts to ban transgender women and girls from female sports by vowing to defend the rule of law against what she called the White House's illegal attacks.
"Today is the latest, expected salvo in an unprecedented campaign to pressure the state of Maine to ignore the Constitution and abandon the rule of law," Mills said in response to the lawsuit, which accuses state officials of "openly and defiantly flouting federal anti-discrimination law by enforcing policies that require girls to compete against boys in athletic competitions designated exclusively for girls."
The suit comes days after the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) announced it would begin cutting off federal K-12 education funding following an agency investigation and after the state rejected a list of the Trump administration's demands regarding transgender student-athletes.
"This matter has never been about school sports or the protection of women and girls."
Mlils argued Wednesday that "this matter has never been about school sports or the protection of women and girls, as has been claimed, it is about states rights and defending the rule of law against a federal government bent on imposing its will, instead of upholding the law."
The Trump administration's sweeping war on transgender rights includes redefining Title IX anti-discrimination law to cancel protection for trans and nonbinary people, trying to reinstate his first-term ban on openly transgender people from military service, ending "X" gender markers on passports, banning federal support for gender-affirming healthcare, pressuring schools to censor lessons and materials about trans and nonbinary people, erasing transgender people and stories from government-run institutions and websites, and much more. Hundreds of anti-trans bills have also been passed or proposed in nearly every state.
Announcing the lawsuit at a DOJ press briefing, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi—who warned that other noncompliant states including California and Minnesota might also be sued—said that i"this has been a huge issue" for Trump.
"We have exhausted every other remedy," Bondi added. "We tried to get Maine to comply. We don't like standing up here and filing lawsuits, we want to get states to comply with us."
However, Mills said that U.S. District Judge John Woodcock's April 11 order for the Trump administration to unfreeze funding for a children's nutrition program that was suspended over the transgender athlete issue "reinforces our position that the federal government has been acting unlawfully."
Mills stoked Trump's ire for resisting his threats to cut off federal funding if she did not move to ban transgender women and girls from female teams—an action that would violate state law explicitly prohibiting gender identity-based discrimination. During a February White House meeting with governors, Trump called out Mills for her defiance and again threatened to cut off funding.
"We're going to follow the law, sir," Mills replied. "We'll see you in court."
This further incensed Trump, whose demand for Mills to apologize was widely mocked. The Trump administration then temporarily forced new Maine parents to register their newborns for a Social Security number at a government office rather than at hospitals, a policy quickly rescinded amid public uproar.
Earlier this month, Maine sued the Trump administration in a bid to stop it from implementing any funding freeze.
"For nearly two months, Maine has endured recriminations from the federal government that have targeted hungry school kids, hardworking fishermen, senior citizens, new parents, and countless Maine people," Mills said Wednesday. "We have been subject to politically motivated investigations that opened and closed without discussion, leaving little doubt that their outcomes were predetermined."
"Let today serve as warning to all states: Maine might be among the first to draw the ire of the federal government in this way, but we will not be the last," Mills said.e "My administration and Maine's attorney general will vigorously defend our state against the action announced today from the Department of Justice."
"This is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a president can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation," she added. "I believe he cannot."
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Emails Show Trump Official Targeted Maine Social Security Services as Political Revenge
"Trump is clearly comfortable weaponizing Social Security for political purposes, and we fear that this is only the beginning," said one critic.
Apr 02, 2025
The top Democrat on the U.S. House Oversight Committee on Wednesday led calls for the resignation of acting Social Security Administration Commissioner Leland Dudek following the revelation of internal emails confirming that the SSA canceled contracts with the state of Maine as political payback after Democratic Gov. Janet Mills publicly defied President Donald Trump in support of transgender student athletes.
The emails—which were obtained by House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.)—show that Dudek ordered the cancellation of enumeration at birth and electronic death registration contracts with Maine, even though SSAd subordinates warned that such action "would result in improper payments and potential for identity theft."
"These emails confirm that the Trump administration is intentionally creating waste and the opportunity for fraud."
Dudek—who is leading the SSA while the Senate considers Trump's nomination of financial services executive Frank Bisignano—replied to the staffer: "Please cancel the contracts. While our improper payments will go up, and fraudsters may compromise identities, no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child."
He was referring to Mills, who stood up to Trump in February after the president threatened to suspend federal funding for Maine unless the state banned transgender girls and women from participating on female scholastic sports teams.
The termination of the enumeration at birth contract briefly forced Maine parents to register their newborns for a Social Security number at a Social Security office, rather than checking a box on a form at the hospital as is customary, before the SSA reversed its decision.
Connolly sent Dudek a letter demanding that he "resign immediately" and submit to a transcribed interview with House Oversight Committee Democrats. Connolly wrote that Dudek "ordered these contracts terminated" as "direct retaliation" for Mills' defiance, "even though you knew that doing so would increase improper payments and create opportunities for fraudsters."
Government accountability advocates also condemned Dudek's actions.
"These emails confirm that the Trump administration is intentionally creating waste and the opportunity for fraud—in this case, to punish Maine Gov. Janet Mills for not bowing down to Donald Trump," Social Security Works president Nancy Altman told Common Dreams.
"The people actually punished by these actions were exhausted new parents in Maine, forced to drag their newborns to overcrowded Social Security offices in the middle of a measles outbreak," she continued. "Thankfully, the Trump administration had to quickly reverse course after massive public outrage. But Trump is clearly comfortable weaponizing Social Security for political purposes, and we fear that this is only the beginning."
"Once again, we see Team Trump resorting to revenge to set domestic policy."
Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, told Common Dreams that "it does not surprise us at all that this administration would weaponize Social Security against anyone who disagrees with or challenges President Trump."
"It's one of the concerns that we have with Elon Musk and [the Department of Government Efficiency] having access to everyone's personal data without any defensible explanation for why they need it," he continued. "We and the American people have legitimate worries, not only that this information will be vulnerable to hackers, but also that it could intentionally be misused as a weapon against anyone who publicly disagrees with Trump."
"The fact that the acting commissioner himself publicly admitted that he didn't really understand the Maine contract, but canceled it anyway, proves that this administration is making reckless changes that affect real people for no legitimate reason," Richtman added. "Once again, we see Team Trump resorting to revenge to set domestic policy."
The revelation of Dudek's emails comes amid SSA turmoil caused by the termination of thousands of agency personnel in what Trump, Musk, and other Republicans claim is an effort to reduce waste and fraud. Musk—who recently referred to Social Security as the the "biggest Ponzi scheme of all time"—has proposed the elimination of up to 50% of SSA's workforce and has said that up to $700 billion could be cut from programs including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
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