House Assistant Minority Leader Rep. Katrina Smith, R-Palermo, center, speaks during a new conference Tuesday at the Maine State House in Augusta. Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, second from right, was censured by House Democrats for a social media post showing the face of a transgender athlete and their school district and also spoke at the event. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — More than a dozen Republican women serving in the House of Representatives marked Women’s History Month by vowing to continue their push to stop transgender athletes from participating in girls sports.

The lawmakers argued that Maine’s policy is a threat to women’s rights. At the same time, they also vowed to oppose Democratic efforts to add an equal rights amendment to the Maine Constitution.

Assistant House Minority Leader Katrina Smith, R-Palermo, accused Democrats of trying to “erase women” from history books by allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports and potentially set new state records. Smith also said the policy amounts to physical and mental abuse of women.

Smith and the other lawmakers at the news conference wore white in honor of the suffragists who fought to earn women the right to vote. She said she once viewed similar symbolic gestures from Democrats as a political game, but not any more.

“It’s far from trivial,” Smith said. “It’s a resolute, urgent stand against what is happening in our state.”

Smith, however, said she opposes efforts from Democrats to ask voters to amend the state constitution to include an equal rights amendment, which would ban discrimination against women.

The current proposal for an equal rights amendment also would prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression.

But Smith said Republicans would not support the amendment even if the language about gender identity were removed because they believe everyone already has equal rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and federal Title IX law.

“ERA was originally put forth for equal pay for women in the workplace. Now it means (a) variety of things,” Smith said. “One, pushing the issue of abortion, and we do not stand behind the ERA.”

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, speaks during a new conference Tuesday at the Maine State House in Augusta, Maine. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, also spoke at the news conference. Libby was censured by House Democrats for a social media post including photos and the first name of a transgender athlete. The censure means she is prohibited from speaking or voting on the House floor until she apologizes, which she doesn’t plan to do.

“Everyone has equal protection under the law,” Libby said. “Individual categories should not have special rights that trump others.”

The news conference came a day after Gov. Janet Mills told reporters at a maple-tree-tapping event Monday at the Blaine House that she will continue to follow Maine’s human rights law, which prohibits discrimination against people who are transgender.

The law is the basis for Maine’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls sports.

President Donald Trump has threatened to cut off all federal funding to Maine unless the state changes the policy and he repeated the threat at a White House reception for governors last month when he called out Mills and demanded she drop the policy. The brief exchange between the two ended with Mills saying, “See you in court.”

When asked about the exchange Monday, Mills noted that Trump began to say, “I am” the federal law, before correcting himself to say, “we are the federal law.”

That comment could have come from Louis XIV, Mills said, according to a video of the comments posted by WMTW.

“In my conversation with the president last week, unfortunately he made the statement — I have never heard any president say this before — that he is law,” Mills said. “That’s not the authority of the president. You can’t create laws by thinking them, by tweeting them, by issuing press releases, by issuing executive orders. Congress makes the laws. The president — the executive branch — executives the laws faithfully.”

While saying she will follow state and federal laws, Mills has not discussed her position on transgender athletes in girls sports.

In 2021, she signed a law expanding the Maine Human Rights Act to include a prohibition on discriminating against someone based on gender identity. Now, it’s that law that Mills says prevents her and the Maine Principals’ Association from following Trump’s executive order.

After the fall elections, Mills said Democrats have placed too much emphasis on issues like gender identity at the expense of issues important to more voters, like inflation and other economic issues.