U.S. Pulls $1.5 Million in Funding from Maine DOC Over a Single Trans Prisoner
A dustup over trans athletes in high school sports between Pres. Donald J. Trump (R) and Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) spilled over into that state’s Department of Corrections (DOC) on April 8, 2025, when the federal Department of Justice (DOJ) terminated $1.5 million in grants because a trans prisoner is incarcerated in a women’s lockup.
The notice from the DOJ did not mention the prisoner, identified in media reports as Andrew “Andrea” Balcer. But U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi vowed, “We will pull your funding. We will protect women in prison. We will protect women throughout this country.”
DOC said that the withdrawn funds were earmarked for treatment of substance use disorder and programs to improve recovery outcomes for released prisoners as they re-enter society, as well as those addressing needs of incarcerated parents and their minor children.
Trump singled out Mills at a White House gathering of governors in February 2025, demanding her submission to an executive order he had signed which instructed federal agencies to cease any recognition of trans people—because the U.S. would from then on recognize only two sexes, male and female—and treat any deviation as a violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bar discrimination on the basis of sex.
Mills replied that she would “follow the law,” an apparent reference to Maine statutes requiring jails and prisons to jails to respect gender identity in housing, unless a placement poses a security risk. Trump then threatened to pull federal funding from the state, to which Mills retorted, “We’ll see you in court.”
Notably, Bondi didn’t mention trans men, though there are almost half as many of them imprisoned, as PLN has noted. [See: PLN, Mar. 2025, p.43.] Trump’s order also appears to violate precedent established by the Supreme Court of the U.S. in Bostock v. Clayton Cty., 590 U.S. 644 (2020), which held that it is “impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.”
Additional sources: The Cut, WMTW
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