Maine Is ‘Too Progressive’ to Allow Men in Women’s Sports, Girl Dad Leader Says as He Fights to Keep Initiative on the Ballot
Tyler O’Neil
• June 22, 2026
Maine Girl Dads is challenging a ruling from Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, finding that they failed to secure enough signatures for their women's sports ballot initiative.
Maine Secretary of State and governor candidate Shenna Bellows on May 1 in Portland. (Graeme Sloan/Getty Images)
Maine fathers are standing up for their daughters, challenging the secretary of state’s decision to invalidate their ballot initiative that aims to protect women’s sports from men claiming to be transgender.
“Maine is far too progressive to continue allowing sexist, regressive, and illegal sex-based discrimination in our schools, and the daily violation of the civil rights of our state’s most vulnerable population: its children,” Leyland Streiff, leader of Maine Girl Dads, told the Daily Signal in a statement Thursday.
“Yet shockingly, we have watched this violation of sex-based civil rights happen every day in Maine’s schools,” he added. “Just this past April, young female schoolchildren (and their mothers, coaches, and advocates) testified to the State Judiciary Committee in Augusta about voyeurism, masturbation, violence, and mental trauma from males in female bathrooms and locker rooms.”
He also noted that a male athlete won a state women’s pole vault competition last year.
https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/06/22/maine-too-progressive-allow-men-womens-sports-girl-dad-leader-says-he-fights-keep-initiative-ballot/
