I am a Maine woman who grew up in Palermo, where we had a single Kindergarten through eighth grade school.

Growing up, I participated in multiple school sports, such as soccer, softball, and basketball; whichever sport was available, I would be a part of. I also took part in drama clubs and chorus groups.

The availability of each sport was typically in question due to, “Did we have enough kids to make a full team?”

A lot of the time, we didn’t have enough kids to have teams based on gender. Yet every sports season, parent volunteers and school officials would pull it off to allow for co-ed teams to occur, so all the kids who wanted to participate could.

I remember times when we would have to use classrooms, random bathrooms (a quick sign on the door saying it was the away team's changing room for the event), and makeshift tents that volunteers threw together for tournaments. During theatre events, usually a hallway behind the stage was where we did quick costume changes with no time to run back to the classroom assigned to us while putting on a show. 

Now, as a mom with four children aged 7-17, who are growing up in this age of computer screens, getting them enough physical exercise is difficult when prying them from the latest video game or social media site. Yet, some billionaire, Richard Uihlein from Illinois, has spent $800,000 to get a referendum on Maine’s ballot to restrict Maine children from being able to play school sports. All because of their gender identity.

The ballot question states, “Do you want to change civil rights and education laws to require public schools to restrict access to bathrooms and sports based on the gender on the child’s original birth certificate and allow students to sue the schools?”

As if that type of money couldn’t be used to do anything else but push a discriminatory agenda in a state he’s probably only ever stepped foot in as a tourist, if he’s ever been here at all.

Keep in mind that there are only TWO, yes, you read that right, only two transgender teen athletes in Maine. If we were looking more broadly at the United States of America as a whole, transgender people make up 1.4% of the population. So, what is so scary about transgender child athletes that he’s spent that much money to affect the legislation in a state he doesn’t reside in? 

Many people's issue seems to be the changing rooms as they clutch their pearls, “Oh no, they’ll be changing together!” But our children have been doing so for years already, out of necessity to handle coed teams in small rural areas.

These communities don’t have the money to make gender neutral changing areas in every school, especially when the school itself typically needs an overhaul to meet code standards.

I remember friends and teammates holding up towels so I could change and turn around to do so for them. This fear overlooks Maine’s hardiness and ingenuity in the face of the adversity of rural living.

Next up is the “But girls can’t compete with boys. It’s not fair!”  

First off, whoever said life was fair? Second, we have coed teams across the state, either because that’s what's wanted in the area or because it’s the only way to have a team. So, this argument doesn’t hold water.

Girls in Maine could outcompete the boys in any sport they wanted to. The thought that boys and girls are so different physically that we need gender-based teams at all is archaic. Are our children really not up to the challenge of competing together? I know they are from my coed sports team days, when going up against an all-boys team and beating them with our mix of genders was possible.

So, when we all get to the ballots in November, let’s turn down Uihlein’s brand of hatred and insufficient knowledge of Maine culture. Let’s stand up for our children, no matter their gender identity, and show America that hate doesn’t belong in Maine.

Our children can play whatever sport they want to, and the adults will figure it out. 

Amanda Racine Currier lives in Waldo