Maine 'mama bear' facing threats as parents battle to keep 8-year-old boy off girls' basketball team

A mother in a coastal Maine enclave has banded together with other local parents in protest of an 8-year-old boy who joined a recreational girls' basketball team, causing an uproar in the erstwhile quiet community.

"Initially, we were concerned," Katy Miller, whose daughter played on the basketball team, told Fox News Digital. "We talked to our daughters [and] kind of got a read from them on how they felt. And we were all in agreement that we were just not on board with this."

At a Nov. 10 Town of St. George Select Board meeting, Miller and other parents made their case to stop the biological boy, who identifies as a girl, from competing with the girls. The games are played in a local school gym, making the situation a town matter.

Colin Hurd, an attorney from the Maine Human Rights Commission, an independent state agency that enforces the Maine Human Rights Act, said that under Maine law, it is illegal for a municipality to deny services - in this case recreational basketball - to anyone based on gender identity. It is also illegal in Maine to prevent anyone from using a public restroom or locker room that "most closely aligns with their gender identity."

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But there are some exceptions.

"Nevertheless, the commission does recognize that there may be occasions where the participation of a transgender person in athletic activities could pose a genuine risk of health and safety, to either the transgender person or to others," Hurd said.

Miller said the girls don't feel safe.

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"I know our girls mentioned the biggest thing that they were worried about was changing in a locker room," she said. "There's been a lot of talk about how in the rec[reation] department, the girls don't use the locker rooms. Well, if they don't use the locker rooms, they use the bathrooms."

"Girls want to feel safe. They want to have safe spaces. They don't want to have to worry about these things, and that was probably the number one concern for these little girls," Miller continued. "They did not want to change in front of a biological boy, and I don't blame them."

At the Nov. 10 meeting, townspeople on both sides of the issue spoke to the board in person and via Zoom. Some supporters of the boy argued that he did not have a physical or biological advantage at his young age. Some opponents, meanwhile, argued that it was wrong to set a precedent of boys playing girls' sports, and that allowing boys to do so is a slap in the face to girls.

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Ultimately, the select board eventually voted 3-2 in favor of allowing the boy to play on the girls' team.

The opposing parents were forced to create a private league for their daughters, which involves more traveling to play games and more out-of-pocket expenses for equipment and practice space. While they can still use their school gym sometimes, Miller said the independent girls' basketball team is at the bottom of the priority list in terms of scheduling.   

"It has taken a toll," said Miller. "I have received a lot of pushback, but for me, it's more important all day long to protect these girls, especially my daughter. And you know, it's kind of the mama bear instinct, right? When, you know, people come knocking, and they want to, you know, do things like this, you stand your ground, and that's what we're doing. We're standing our ground, no matter the pushback."

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Miller told Fox News Digital that the "pushback" has gone beyond civil discourse.

"There has been a lot of threatening behavior that has gone on, to the point of calling police," she said. "There's been a police presence at the meetings. It's been very tense, very, very tense. That's the hard part as parents is we're just standing up for our girls. We're being told terrible things all across social media."

Miller said she's been told on social media that she shouldn't be a mother, and that she would be better off dead.

On Wednesday night, the parents will plead their case in front of the school board in St. George.

Miller expressed gratitude to multiple interest groups, politicians and elected officials who have advocated on behalf of the parents. One of those elected officials is Maine Republican State Rep. Laurel Libby.

"The vast majority of Mainers don't support biological males in girls sports," Libby told Fox News Digital. "You know, I think we see natural polling that most folks support biological reality."

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"It's not fair for boys to participate in a girls' game and take opportunities, frankly, especially as they get to the higher levels that should be set aside for girls," she continued.

Libby said that Mainers, and about 80% of the public at large, do not support boys playing girls' sports, but that a small percentage of radical left-wingers continue to push the issue.

"As wild as that stance is, it had more support back eight or so years ago," she said. "And now American people and Maine people have swung the other direction and said, 'absolutely not, boys should not be in girls sports and spaces.'

"And yet the very radical left - not all Democrats, but the very radical left - is doubling down, and is absolutely staunchly supporting this conflict with biological reality to insist that boys and men should be in girls and women spaces. And it is a crazy hill to die on."

Steve Cartright, a member of the town select board committee, told Fox News Digital that he voted in favor of the biological boy to play on the girls' team due to Maine law. 

"I am sorry that local parents are not more tolerant of children who identify with a gender different from their anatomy at birth," he said of his fellow townspeople. "I think we need to support a school, community and society that includes all children, and doesn't exclude or punish them for their gender identity."

He added that he thinks adults "fear change" and then launched into a tirade against President Donald Trump.

"What scares me is hate speech from President Trump and his allies, fanning the flames of prejudice and persecution of people whe [sic] are not 'white' or 'straight.' It's un-American and morally depraved," he said. 

Cartwright says he's "skeptical" of Miller's claim that she has received threats. 

The Maine Human Rights Commission did not return a request for comment.