Two Maine high school students said Monday that transgender athletes competing in girls’ sports had affected their opportunities. Their lawyer also announced plans to file a federal civil rights complaint on their behalf.
Reagan Wilson, a junior at Fryeburg Academy, and Morgan Clark, a junior and varsity soccer captain at Windham High School, spoke at the Maine State House in Augusta. They appeared alongside advocates working to put sex-based sports eligibility rules before voters statewide.
Wilson said girls and women can feel deeply disappointed when they lose to competitors they believe should not be eligible for their events. She said she has competed in swimming, cross-country, indoor and outdoor track, soccer and softball, and has encountered transgender athletes in several sports.
Wilson described racing against a transgender competitor during cross-country and later facing one on an all-girls soccer team. She argued that the policies had denied her and other girls an equal chance to compete and win.
Clark, who has played soccer in Maine since she was four, said the issue once seemed distant, something she mostly encountered online. Now, she said, it has reached her own team.
She pointed to an October draw against a team Windham had generally outranked in earlier seasons. Windham and South Portland tied 1-1 on Oct. 1. South Portland had finished the previous season with a 3-9-2 record and ranked 14th in the regional Heal point standings, according to a newspaper report.
A draft complaint provided to a media outlet identifies a transgender player on South Portland’s girls’ soccer team as the subject of the athletes’ allegations. A scoring chart included with the draft credits the player with 15 goals and 10 assists through South Portland’s playoff game on Oct. 27.
The proposed complaint argues that Maine’s eligibility rules deny female athletes equal competitive opportunities. It also recounts Wilson’s experiences in cross-country and indoor track and field.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Tavia Bruxellas McAlister said at the news conference that the organization planned to submit a Title IX complaint to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that day.
The draft asks the department to investigate the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association, South Portland School Department and Windham Raymond School District. It also seeks changes to eligibility policies and remedies for alleged past violations.
Windham and South Portland were both eliminated in regional semifinal games Friday, so they will not meet again in this year’s playoffs. The draft says Wilson and Clark plan to play varsity soccer next year and expect to face the South Portland player again.
The dispute between Maine and federal officials over transgender athletes in girls’ sports has been ongoing. The Education Department announced a Title IX noncompliance finding against Maine in March 2025. The Justice Department filed suit against the state’s education department the following month.
Maine officials and the Maine Principals’ Association have defended the state’s approach by pointing to the Maine Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity. The association’s policy permits transgender students to compete based on either their sex at birth or their gender identity, but not both.
In June, the Supreme Court upheld state restrictions on transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports. The Court did not resolve the separate question at the center of Maine’s dispute: whether schools may allow transgender athletes to compete on female teams.
The students’ appearance came as referendum organizers announced another effort to bring restrictions before Maine voters. Leyland Streiff, a leader of the Protect Girls Sports in Maine ballot committee and Maine Girl Dads, said the group was submitting 4,836 additional signatures in support of a 2027 ballot question.
An earlier petition missed the threshold for this year’s election by 532 valid signatures after a legal challenge and review. The newly submitted signatures must still be verified by the state.
The proposed measure would use the sex listed on a student’s original birth certificate to determine eligibility for designated school teams and access to bathrooms, locker rooms and other private spaces. It would also allow students to sue over certain violations.
Clark said she hopes the proposal will help her teammates and other girls play the sports they care about in a fair and safe environment.
