Billionaire-Funded Anti-Trans Bathroom/Sports Ban Ballot Initiative Moves Forward In Maine

The ballot initiative is bankrolled by billionaire anti-trans donor, Richard Uihlein, and represents a new line of attack against transgender people in blue states.

Photo by Serenity Mitchell on Unsplash

Anti-trans organization "Protect Girls Sports in Maine” has announced that it has collected enough signatures to get a combination transgender sports ban and school bathroom ban onto the November 2026 ballot, making Maine the second state this year to announce a ballot initiative targeting transgender people in a blue state after a similar effort in Washington. This comes after Maine Gov. Janet Mills fiercely rejected Trump administration attempts to strongarm the state into enacting such restrictions on its own, under threat of losing school lunch money and more. Now, voters may directly determine the fate of transgender youth in schools across the state after a massive signature drive bankrolled by billionaire Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein, the latest in an attempt by ultra-wealthy conservative donors to export anti-trans discrimination across the United States through direct ballot measures.

"Not only will our initiative become the only citizen-led issue to appear on the 2026 Maine ballot, but we will likely be the first state where voters can protect female sports at the ballot box this November. We will pave the way for the rest of this nation," said Leyland Streiff, the lead petitioner, about the ballot initiative turn-in. Notably, he remained cagey about bathrooms, which the ballot initiative will also heavily impact, in a possibly strategic angle to hide that the bill is much more expansive than he gives credit for.

The initiative would, according to the summary page, define a person's sex for school purposes as "a person's biological status as male or female recorded at birth on the person's original birth certificate." It would "require schools to maintain separate restrooms, locker rooms, shower rooms, and other private spaces for each sex," going beyond sports. It would also create a "private right of action” for a student who “suffers direct injury because of a violation of a provision of the initiated bill," allowing students to sue if they encounter transgender students in bathrooms at schools or in sports. Lastly, it specifically carves out transgender students in bathrooms and sports from the Maine Human Rights Act.

Maine LGBTQ+ organizations fiercely condemned the bill. David Farmer, speaking on behalf of an opponent coalition of LGBTQ+ organizations across the state, called the referendum a "one-size fits all approach to sports participation and bathrooms that will increase bullying and harassment and cost local schools millions of dollars for construction and litigation." He also called out the billionaire backing of the bill, stating, "This is a cynical attempt by one of the richest people in the world to manipulate voters in hopes of influencing the U.S. Senate race, the race for governor and the races for Congress."

The bill has received significant backing from a least one billionaire funder in what appears to be a growing trend around anti-transgender legislation and initiatives. The signature drive was bankrolled by Richard Uihlein, the Illinois billionaire who donated $800,000 through the PAC “Safeguard Girls Sports.” Uihlein, who has given more than $250 million to political causes since 2016 according to OpenSecrets, is also a major funder of the American Principles Project, which routinely spends tens of millions on anti-trans campaign ads during election years. The APP received roughly 80% of its funding from Uihlein in 2022, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Uihlein is far from the only billionaire pouring money into anti-trans causes. Elon Musk poured $25 million into a Wisconsin Supreme Court race where anti-trans messaging was a central feature. Hedge fund billionaire Joseph Edelman provided $1 million in seed funding to launch SPLC-designated hate group Do No Harm, a group that has since provided model legislation for bans on gender-affirming care in several states. And an independent analysis published by Atmos and HEATED found that 80% of 45 major anti-trans organizations in the U.S. have received funding from fossil fuel companies or billionaires, including Shell and the Koch network.

The Maine ballot initiative is not the only initiative that will go to the ballot this year. Washington will also see a ballot initiative targeting transgender participation in sports. Though the Washington bill does not have the same bathroom provision, it does have a more direct provision towards genital exams. This appears to be part of a growing attempt to use ballot initiatives to roll back civil rights in blue states, though such initiatives will still have to get by state level constitutional equal protection.

With more than 82,000 signatures reportedly now submitted to the Secretary of State's office, the initiative will enter Maine's indirect initiative process. Once certified, it will be sent to the state legislature, where lawmakers can adopt it as written, reject it, or propose an alternative to appear alongside it on the ballot. With Democrats in control of both chambers, the legislature is all but certain to reject it—sending it directly to voters in November 2026. Maine voters will then have a direct say as to whether transgender students in bathrooms and sports will be carved out of the Maine Human Rights Act. If voters approve of the measure, it would be a major blow to transgender rights in a blue state that has, until now, been one of the safest in the nation for LGBTQ+ youth.