57 ME School Districts Hide Kids’ Gender Dysphoria From Parents

In Maine, where gender and queer theories reign supreme, at least 57 of its 192 school districts have policies that exclude parents from knowing whether their children start identifying as transgender.

According to documents reviewed by The Federalist and obtained by Parents Defending Education through public records requests, a significant portion of Maine’s public school districts — including its most populous ones — hide students’ critical medical and social information from parents if they are unwilling to allow their child to “transition” genders.

The school districts are potentially putting at risk the lives of their students — and at the very least their mental and physical health — by hiding the information from the parents, as allowing children to pursue such delusions is a dangerous experiment pushed only by the most radical predators and not backed by medical science.

“Maine is a state that has gone all in on gender ideology in K-12 schools,” Erika Sanzi, director of outreach for PDE, told The Federalist. “We see it in these policies to knowingly withhold information from parents about their own child’s gender identity at school and we see it in the governor’s insistence that males be allowed to participate and compete in girls’ sports. It’s all indefensible as well as wildly unpopular among voters, regardless of their political party.”

The districts’ policies add to the hot water Maine has recently found itself in, as intransigent behavior by the state’s Democrat governor, Janet Mills, has resulted in a federal civil rights investigation over the state allowing boys to compete against girls in sports. The state could lose $250 million in federal education funding if it is found to be violating civil rights law.

That investigation came on the heels of Trump administration guidance directing school districts to get rid of their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, including those based on radical gender theory. Maine’s parental exclusion policies appear to violate an executive order signed by President Donald Trump reestablishing the importance of parental oversight over their children in schools after significant damage had been done during the Biden administration.

The order, titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination In K-12 Schooling,” explicitly mentions school districts encouraging children to pursue so-called “gender transition” and hide that information from their parents: “For example, steering students toward surgical and chemical mutilation without parental consent or involvement or allowing males access to private spaces designated for females may contravene Federal laws that protect parental rights, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), and sex-based equality and opportunity, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX).”

The order directs federal agencies to “prevent or rescind” federal funding to schools that “directly or indirectly support or subsidize the social transition of a minor student, including through school staff or teachers or through deliberately concealing the minor’s social transition from the minor’s parents.”

Maine school district policies designed to conceal this information from parents appear to be in direct contravention of Trump’s order.

Portland Public Schools, the state’s largest district, has a “Transgender and Gender Expansive Students” policy that directs school staff to hide any abnormal “gender identity” information from parents who might not allow their children to pursue social or medical “transition.”

“In the event that a student and their parent or legal guardian do not agree with regard to the student’s gender identity or gender expression, the school shall abide by the wishes of the student with regard to their gender identity and gender expression while at school,” the policy states. “School staff shall comply with the student’s wishes regarding disclosure of their transgender status to others, including but not limited to parents or guardians, students, volunteers or other school staff, unless the student has explicitly authorized the disclosure or unless legally required to do so.”

The students who claim to be transgender can also use restrooms and locker rooms that match their new “identity” — girls can be forced to use the restroom with boys and undress in front of them as well. Staff and students are forced to use the “preferred pronouns” of the students who make the “gender identity” claims.

Other major school districts in Maine, including Lewiston, Bangor, Auburn, and many others have nearly identical policies. Part of the reason for that is the policy was created by the Maine School Boards Association and proliferated among many of the districts.

Many of the districts also have teacher and staff training programs that tell them to encourage children to identify as different genders and create classroom environments where “gender expansive” students are given special treatment.

Bangor, for example, had a 2022 presentation called “LGBTQ+ 101: Understanding and Supporting all those letters within your school community.” The presentation used common gender ideology propaganda tools like the “Genderbread Person,” which is used to convince children that gender is on a spectrum.

Staff are also told to “neutralize language in classrooms” and dehumanize the family unit by using terms such as “significant other” and “partner” instead of “husband,” “wife,” “boyfriend,” and “girlfriend.” It also tells them to start a relationship with students by first referring to singular students with “they/them” pronouns “if unsure.”

While Maine School Unit 29, another district, has not explicitly adopted the parental exclusion policy of the other 57 districts, it has had groomer training from an organization that pushed LGBT indoctrination on children.

Unit 29 reached out to OUT Maine, a gay and transgender youth programming organization in the state with the stated mission “to change the very systems that serve diverse queer youth in all of their intersectional identities.”

According to documents obtained by PDE, OUT Maine suggested implementing gay and transgender ideology into school curriculums, such as “displaying LGBTQ+ role models in educational materials” and “developing STRONG policies, procedures, and inclusive curriculum.”

The organization said staff should “feel confident, and understand the proper terminology to use when talking to LGBTQ+ youth,” while students “should receive regular training” to “learn about equity” and “understand what is expected of them.”

The other districts with parental exclusion policies are: Maine School Administrative District 15, Sunrise County, Easton, East Millinocket, District 45, Millinocket, Wiscasset, District 20, Alternative Organizational Structure 98, Unit 23, Camden Rockport, Unit 24, Unit 26, Unit 67, Kittery, Unit 68, District 55, Unit 3, District 72, Unit 38, Unit 39, Unit 4, Lisbon, Hermon, Cape Elizabeth, York, Brewer, Waterville, Yarmouth, District 1, Unit 1, Unit 10, Unit 40, Kennebec Intra-District Schools, Unit 19, District 11, District 52, Falmouth, Unit 5, District 35, District 51, Mt. Blue, Unit 22, Biddeford, Brunswick, Unit 21, Gorham, Saco, Scarborough, District 60, South Portland, Sanford, and District 6.

Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.