Convicted felon #47 is enacting a disruptive, potentially disastrous, campaign of vengeance over Maine Governor Janet Mills insistance upon complying with the law.
Maine has two transgender athletes. Bigoted Donald Trump wants to service his angry MAGA base and insisted Governor Janet Mills remove them from sports. The governor famously told Trump she'd see him in court, but now federal agencies are pulling funding for projects in her state, and government agencies are seeing cuts. Propublica shares the details on Trump exacting revenge:
Then came a barrage of investigations and threats: The U.S. Department of Education opened inquiries into the Maine Department of Education and the student's school district, alleging they had violated federal civil rights law. The same day, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services targeted the Maine Education Department, too, as well as the state's university system.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture then launched an investigation into the university system; and on Tuesday, the university said the USDA had halted funding as the agency investigates "prospective" civil rights violations, records show.
The U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter that "Maine should be on notice" that the agency was poised to sue. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration even pulled $4.5 million for marine research, but it didn't touch the 33 other grantees who get similar funding.ProPublica
Then last week, the Social Security Administration briefly became the sixth federal agency to target Maine, canceling contracts that allowed hospitals to automatically report births and funeral homes to report deaths.
Be confident this is revenge. Federal agencies like HHS do not move quickly, but here they seem to have moved at a lightning pace:
Not only did it dive into Maine's policies on transgender athletes, it reached a conclusion with unprecedented speed.
Investigations like this typically take months, if not years, according to a review of federal investigation data and records by ProPublica and the Bangor Daily News. But just one business day after announcing the investigation, the federal agency decided the Maine Department of Education wasn't giving girls equal opportunities and had violated Title IX "by allowing male athletes to compete against female athletes," according to a letter from HHS to the state.
Previously:
• Can anti-transgender bias in media be measured?
• Disney removes transgender storyline from upcoming Disney+ animated series
