Maine school board member claims parents who want to ban boys from girls' sports have 'pedophilic tendencies'

A school board member in Maine has been slammed for saying that parents with concerns about trans-identified male students playing on their daughters' sports teams have "pedophilic tendencies." She made the comments during a school board meeting earlier in October.

Kennebunk Select Board Member Leslie Trentalange spoke up at the meeting, saying that critics of allowing boys to play in girls' sports have an "obsession" with the "private parts" in between students' legs. She said that parents who have "creepy obsessions" about the issue are not the "majority opinion."

She added in her comments that the parents are a "group who has made hate their only hobby" and "made" the board listen to speeches on the topic. "Their obsession with what private parts are sitting in between the legs of our students is nothing less than creepy and should absolutely be raising eyebrows in and around our school district," she added

Trentalange then claimed that the parents "clearly don't care about the well-being of the students" if they don't want trans players in girls' sports. 

"For shame, their obsession with genitalia points not to caring for the students in this district, but perhaps toward an underlying guilt for their own pedophilic tendencies. There is a registry for that," she added, which drew a reaction of gasps in the room. Board Chair Member Matthew Stratford told her to stop speaking. "There is no place for that, Leslie," he said. "That was inappropriate."

Trentalange doubled down, responding: "I don’t think that was inappropriate at all, and I stand by my comments."

In a statement responding to the board member's outburst, Stratford said there is 'no place for harassment, discriminatory language, disrespectful words, or other disruptive speech or comments' during the school board meetings," but did not mention Trentalange specifically.

Trentalange later issued something of a half apology in a different meeting but also stood by the comments at the time. "If there are folks in the marginalized queer community who feel my message did not serve them, or hurt them in any way, it is that which I regret," said Trentalange. "I also regret the undue and undeserved backlash other members of the Select Board or town’s staff have felt over my comments as an individual." Trentalange also gave up her role on the school board amid backlash.