I can easily understand why Gov. Janet Mills so blatantly defied President Trump, who has become a bull in a china shop. But for Gov. Mills, who is a lawyer, past prosecutor, attorney general and fabled supporter of the rule of law, to support the allowance of male-bodied athletes to compete against biological female athletes was a disappointing unforced error.

The law and the unfairness of that policy are manifestly against her stance and the underlying policy of the Maine Principals’ Association (MPA), whose bylaws expressly permit male-bodied athletes who simply identify as females to compete against biological females.

Based on reports, a Maine high school senior who had previously competed as a male but reportedly became a member of the girls’ track and field team won the Class B Maine state indoor pole vault girls’ championship. That person, who would have placed 10th out of 13 in the boys’ division, competed against and beat all 14 of the biological female pole vaulters. What a tragic lost opportunity for biological females.

Where is the compassion and empathy for the biological girls who were overpowered by this athlete? In her heart, can Gov. Mills truly feel that it’s fair for a male-bodied athlete to deprive a biological girl of winning the state championship?

Title IX was passed by Congress in 1972, decades before “gender identity” became a now-recognized issue in athletics. Title IX refers to “sex,” which is a biological reality. It makes no reference to “gender identity.” But under the MPA’s bylaws, “gender identity” — a fluid social construct —  trumps “sex” altogether. The MPA openly and deliberately ignores the clear meaning and original intent of Title IX, without a word of apology or empathy toward biological female athletes.

I have no problem with a male identifying as a woman and being free from discrimination in employment and academic opportunities, where physical prowess isn’t an issue. However, athletics are decidedly different.

Firstly, physical prowess is an essential ingredient of athletics, but not of employment. Secondly, Title IX didn’t even include athletics when passed; that was added by regulation two years later, differentiating its treatment from education or employment. Thirdly, black-letter law requires that statutes be given their “plain meaning” in accordance with the legislative intent at the time, and that mere regulations don’t trump their related statutes. No amount of clever sophistry should change this straightforward reasoning. Having a background in civil rights, I can’t understand why Gov. Mills won’t acknowledge this.

Beyond its legal infirmity, the unfairness of the MPA’s policy is really not debatable. The national public health agency of the United States, numerous objective and comprehensive studies and U.S. Army data all show beyond any doubt that the average male-bodied athletes who have started or been through puberty are substantially taller, stronger and faster than biological females.

Specifically in Maine, the qualifying times, distance and height standards for the state track and field championships, stunningly illustrate the physical advantages that male-bodied athletes are recognized to have over biological female athletes. The differences put boys at an average 25% competitive advantage over girls.

The pole vault itself puts the boys at a striking 57% advantage over girls. When competitions are won by inches or hundredths of seconds, combining the two sexes into one competition unquestionably results in an unlevel playing field to the enormous disadvantage of biological girls.

A United Nations expert sternly warned the Biden administration that allowing transgender men to compete in women’s sports causes extreme psychological distress and loss of opportunity for fair competition for women and that it violates women’s human rights. The numbers in the report told the story: By March 30 of last year, more than 600 female athletes competing against biological men lost 890 medals in 29 different sports. That number has only increased.

The report states that “Multiple studies offer evidence that athletes born male have proven performance advantages in sport throughout their lives…” and that “These physiological advantages are not undone by testosterone suppression.” Note that testosterone suppression isn’t even required by the MPA’s policy.

Public polls find that 69-80% of the public opposes allowing transgender females to compete against biological females. If those percentages resulted from votes in a political election, it would be interpreted as a clear mandate.

At least 25 states have passed laws restricting transgender athletes’ ability to participate in school sports.

Numerous governing organizations’ policies such as World Athletics, FINA and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) generally now only permit athletes to compete in women’s sports if their biological sex assigned at birth is female and they have not begun hormone therapy, while allowing all athletes to participate in male sports.

The MPA and Gov. Mills should abandon their unjustified defense of the misguided social policy of institutional discrimination against biological female athletes, the very athletes Title IX was intended to support. That should be the rule of law that Gov. Mills should champion.