EXCLUSIVE: Maine Rep. Laurel Libby speaks out against state's refusal to protect women’s sports: 'It’s time to absolutely bring this fight'

Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) has garnered national attention in recent weeks after bringing the spotlight onto the state's policies which allowed a biological male to compete and win the girls’ state high school pole vaulting championships, despite President Donald Trump’s executive order barring biological males from female sports. In the wake of this, she was censured by Maine’s Democrat-led House of Representatives. Speaking with The Post Millennial, Rep. Libby said she wants to "keep the focus on the girls" and expressed how "critical it is that we speak up for them."

In the wake of Trump signing the executive order and the Maine Principals Association saying that they would not abide by that, Libby said that "we knew it was only a matter of time" before a biological male won in the state. That came less than two weeks later, with a Greely High School student winning the state championships with a jump that was one inch under the state record. 

She said that she has heard from parents and girls who were at the meet, some of whom competed against the biological male student, "and they all have expressed these same feelings of just sadness and betrayal," she said, adding that some of the female athletes did not know they were competing against a biological male until they were warming up at the meet. "They just lost that oomph and knew the outcome."

She said that a positive that has come out of the situation is that the national spotlight has been shone on Maine "at just the right time so that the Trump administration can address it," because "our governor and our Democrat legislature are not going to do so."

After bringing light to the biological male’s victory, Libby was censured in the state House in a vote of 75-70. Speaking on her censure, she said, "I have to imagine how I’m feeling feels very similar to how these girls feel when they’re essentially canceled in their sport by a male."

"It’s the same thing. I am a female who was silenced by a male, and these girls are being silenced and pushed aside by biological males, and it’s frustrating."

She said the difference between these two situations is that she is an adult, and "I can and will speak up for myself. But these girls, they feel absolutely powerless because the adults in the room—supposed adults in the room—are not. The legislature, the governor, the leadership in the state is betraying them."

Libby said that she is "considering her options" in the wake of the censure vote for "legal remedy," saying she does not believe House Speaker Ryan Fecteau has the "constitutional right to strip me of my vote or my voice."

On the ongoing fight to protect women’s sports in Democrat states that aren’t complying with Trump’s executive order, Libby said "this is the right fight and it’s the right time," noting that the Trump administration in the White House "is going to back our girls."

"It’s time to absolutely bring this fight, even in states that have Democrat leadership, because we have that resource of the federal government that we have not had in the last few years."

She said that it was important to "highlight and keep focus on the girls" who continue to have to play against biological males, and said that it is "critical we speak up for them. Even with my censuring, that really is the focus: on Maine girls and how their rights are being stripped."

In the wake of the high school student’s win and the story going nationwide, Trump confronted Maine Governor Janet Mills at a governors’ meeting at the White House, threatening to withhold federal funding. He said that the state "you better do it cause you’re not gonna get any federal at all if you don’t and, by the way, your population, even though it’s somewhat liberal although I did very well there, your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports. So, you better comply, because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding."

Mills said she would see Trump "in court," to which Trump replied, "Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after, Governor, cause I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics."