Cassidy Carlisle’s Fight: Transgender Athletes, Locker Rooms, and a Maine Stand
Cassidy Carlisle’s journey into the contentious world of transgender athletes and locker room policies began in the seventh grade at Presque Isle Middle School in northern Maine. This experience ignited a sense of unease within her, sparking a struggle that has led her to the White House, the Maine Capitol, and the forefront of a national debate.
Carlisle recounts an incident six years ago when she entered the girls’ locker room during gym class, only to find a "biological male" changing alongside her and other female students. She alleges that school administrators informed her that attempting to avoid changing with the transgender student would result in tardiness. "That was really my first experience in just knowing that something isn’t right, but not knowing what to do with that," Carlisle explained in an interview.
While the transgender student was present in the girls’ locker room for approximately a week before, in Carlisle’s words, "mysteriously vanishing," the memory of that experience persisted.
Years later, during her junior year of high school, the issue resurfaced in a more direct and impactful way. Carlisle learned that she would be competing against a transgender athlete on the state Nordic skiing team. The athlete was someone she had previously competed against and lost to in cross-country competitions.
The news struck Carlisle hard. "I was like, ‘Oh, that’s only something I kind of hear about on the news. … It’s not going to happen to me," she recalls. However, the reality was undeniable. She was facing a competitor whose physical advantages, in her view, made fair competition impossible.
"The defeat that comes with that in that moment is heartbreaking," Carlisle stated. She described feeling shocked and unable to fully grasp the situation. This experience resonated with a past event where Carlisle had quit her co-ed hockey team because she felt she couldn’t keep up with the boys. Even in a girls-only sport, she found herself facing a similar disadvantage against a biological male.
Carlisle felt constrained, unable to freely voice her concerns. She expressed a fear of backlash, a common apprehension among high school students. "It’s very hard to speak up if you don’t have a platform to do it on," she said, adding, "No high school student wants to be hurt or yelled at or said mean comments by people. And the reality of it, with the state that I live in, that could very much happen."
In Maine, gender identity has been incorporated into the Maine Human Rights Act since 2005 as part of the definition of sexual orientation. In 2021, the law was amended to include gender identity as its own protected class. This law specifically prohibits denying a person equal opportunity in athletic programs, defining it as education discrimination.
During the November election, the issue of trans athletes in girls’ sports was at the forefront of Carlisle’s mind as she cast her first-ever vote. A national exit poll indicated that a significant percentage of moderate voters considered the issue of transgender athletes in women’s sports and the use of women’s bathrooms to be important.
A turning point came when Republican Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby publicly criticized a transgender athlete who won a girls’ pole vault competition. This incident ignited a statewide debate, drawing national attention to the issue.
Seizing the opportunity, Carlisle joined the growing chorus of voices speaking out against the state’s laws that enable trans inclusion in girls’ sports and locker rooms. She found herself aligned with the Trump administration, which was actively challenging Democrat-controlled states like Maine on the issue.
Carlisle’s activism took her to the White House, where she met with Attorney General Pam Bondi and several other state attorneys general, sharing her personal story. She noted the absence of any representatives from Maine’s Attorney General’s office, which heightened her sense of responsibility to advocate for change in her home state.
Upon returning to Maine, Carlisle delivered a speech in front of the Maine Capitol, addressing hundreds of residents protesting Gov. Janet Mills’ continued support for trans inclusion in girls’ sports.
The Trump administration intensified its efforts to pressure Maine to align its policies with the views of Carlisle and others who sought to protect female athletes from trans inclusion. The Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights (OCR) determined that the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals Association, and Greely High School had violated Title IX by enabling trans inclusion in girls’ sports. The department gave Maine a limited time to rectify its policies or risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Trump administration had already demonstrated its willingness to withhold federal funding to enforce these policies, pausing funding to the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Maine System.
Carlisle expressed her concern about the potential loss of federal funding for Maine’s schools. "I really hope that Maine complies because our schools need the federal funding, and we can’t risk losing that," she said. "It would really really hurt our state to lose that federal funding. So, I hope our government can get it together."
Cassidy Carlisle’s journey exemplifies the escalating debate surrounding transgender athletes and the balancing act between inclusivity and competitive fairness. Her story highlights the personal impact of these issues and the growing momentum behind the movement to redefine the boundaries of women’s sports.
