Posted on Thursday, April 3, 2025
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by Sarah Katherine Sisk
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14 Comments
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On the issue of keeping men out of women’s sports, conservatives are winning one of their most decisive cultural victories in recent memory.
A new American Parents Coalition (APC) poll of 600 Maine voters, shared exclusively with The Daily Wire, is the latest evidence that large majorities of Americans oppose allowing biological males who claim transgender status to compete on women’s sports teams. The survey found that 63% of respondents, all registered voters, believe athletes should compete on teams that correspond with their biological sex at birth.
As the Wire reported, “The poll also found that 60% of respondents would support a ballot measure limiting participation in women’s and girls’ sports to biological females, including 64% of independents and 66% of parents with kids under age 18.”
Maine has become ground zero in the battle to protect women’s sports as Democrat Governor Janet Mills has clashed with President Donald Trump over the issue.
Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order threatening to withhold education funds from states that allowed men to compete on women’s teams at schools that receive federal funding. Then, during a White House event in February, Trump confronted Mills to her face over her refusal to comply with the order. “We’ll see you in court,” she said to Trump.
In response, the Trump administration on Wednesday indeed froze the state’s federal funding. “Your defiance of federal law has cost your state, which is bound by Title IX in educational programming,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, whose department was responsible for the freeze. “Today, I am freezing Maine’s federal funds for certain administrative and technological functions in schools. This is only the beginning, though you are free to end it at any time by protecting women and girls in compliance with federal law.”
While Mills and Maine Democrats appear determined to hold their ground and adhere to left-wing transgender ideology, the APC poll shows that Maine voters are clearly on the side of the Trump administration.
Even more concerning for Democrats nationally, the Maine results actually lag behind national polling, adding to the overwhelming evidence that Americans across the political spectrum have aligned with the conservative position on this issue.
A January 2025 New York Times/Ipsos survey, for instance, suggests the debate may be all but resolved in the court of public opinion, finding that 79% of Americans oppose transgender female athletes – individuals born male but who now identify as female – competing in women’s sports.
A February 2025 Pew Research study also found that two-thirds of U.S. adults favor laws requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams matching their sex.
A 2023 Gallup poll further noted that from 2021 to 2023 there was an eight point drop (34% to 26%) in support for allowing males who claim transgender status to compete on women’s sports teams.
Even some dyed-in-the-wool liberals are beginning to see the writing on the wall. California Governor Gavin Newsom suggested in a podcast episode with Charlie Kirk, Founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, that he supports requiring athletes to compete on teams that correspond with their biological sex, calling it “deeply unfair” to allow men to compete on women’s teams.
Of course, as AMAC Newsline noted, Newsom’s sudden moderate turn is hardly believable. After all, he is the same self-described progressive Democrat who signed a law that made California the very first “sanctuary state” for transgender procedures on minors, allowing state courts to strip custody from parents – even parents of children who don’t live in California – if they refuse to acknowledge their child’s gender confusion.
Nonetheless, veteran Democrat strategist James Carville recently predicted that more Democrat leaders will follow Newsom’s lead in opposing transgender participation in women’s sports. “I think that’s a view that most Americans have,” Carville told Fox News. This remarkable shift from just a few years ago underscores how unpopular Democrats’ stance on this issue has become.
From a scientific standpoint, the physiological disparities between biological males and biological females are impossible to deny. According to Women in Sport, adult males have, on average, 40-50% greater upper limb strength, 20-40% greater lower limb strength, and 26 pounds more skeletal muscle mass than females of comparable fitness.
These biological differences translate directly to performance, with males showing 10-12% faster times in swimming and running, 20% better results in jumping events, and up to 50% greater weightlifting ability. In one study, even highly trained female athletes had weaker hand grip strength than 75% of untrained male subjects, with male handgrip measuring 541 Newtons compared to female handgrip at 329 Newtons.
But as public opinion polls show, there’s an even more basic reason for banning transgender-identifying men from competing on women’s teams: they’re not women.
Keeping men out of women’s sports – no matter what gender they claim to be – has become one of those rare issues on which politicians are deeply divided, but the public is not. Conservatives (and common sense) are clearly winning the day. The only question is if Democrats will acknowledge defeat or continue to put themselves at odds with a majority of the American people.
Sarah Katherine Sisk is a senior at Hillsdale College pursuing a degree in Economics and Journalism. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.
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