President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” gives federal agencies, including the Justice and Education departments, wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration’s view, which interprets “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth.

“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at a signing ceremony.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the order “upholds the promise of Title IX” and will require “immediate action, including enforcement actions, against schools and athletic associations” that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms.

It’s not clear how the order could impact sports in Maine, where the state allows student athletes to compete on the team that aligns with their gender identity.

The timing of the order coincided with National Girls and Women in Sports Day and is the latest in a string of executive actions from Trump aimed at transgender people.

Trump found during the campaign that his pledge to “keep men out of women’s sports” resonated beyond the usual party lines. More than half the voters surveyed by AP VoteCast said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far.

He leaned into the rhetoric before the election, pledging to get rid of the “transgender insanity,” though his campaign offered little in the way of details.

Wednesday’s order offers some clarity. For example, it authorizes the Education Department to penalize schools that allow transgender athletes to compete, citing noncompliance with Title IX, which prohibits sexual discrimination in schools. Any school found in violation could potentially be ineligible for federal funding.

The order also calls for private sporting bodies to meet at the White House so the president can hear in person “the stories of female athletes who have suffered lifelong injuries, who have been silenced and forced to shower with men and compete with men on athletic fields across the country.”

MAINE IMPACT

Maine expanded athletic opportunities for transgender students last spring when the Maine Principals’ Association, the organization that oversees high school sports, updated its policies to align with the Maine Human Rights Act. The new policy allows transgender student athletes to compete either on the team that aligns with their sex assigned at birth or the one aligned with their gender identity, but not both. How to handle those requests is left  up to schools.

Mike Burnham, executive director of the Interscholastic Division at the MPA, shared a statement Thursday on behalf of the organization indicating they will not change their policies at this time.

“The Maine Principals’ Association will continue to follow the law as it pertains to gender identity,” he wrote. “Should the law change, we will adjust our policy to adhere to those changes.”

Gia Drew, executive director of the statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy nonprofit Equality Maine, criticized the president’s decision to target a population as small as transgender youth athletes.

“It’s very disheartening to have one executive order after another really trying to erase transgender people from public life: from school, from sports, from the military, from health care,” she said.

Drew said the Maine Human Rights Act continues to protect transgender people from discrimination.

“I hope that Maine continues to be supportive, and I expect they’ll try really hard, to fend off the impact of this executive order in Maine,” she said. “I’m hopeful that we continue to protect the rights of kids to play sports with their classmates, just like anyone else.”

WILL THE ORDER STAND?

The move by the Trump administration is the latest to limit the rights of transgender Americans.

Previous efforts have sought to have the federal government reject the idea that people can transition to a gender other than the one assigned at birth. That has implications for areas including passports and prisons.

He’s also opened the door to barring transgender service members from the military; called to end federal health insurance and other funding for gender-affirming care for transgender people under age 19; and restrict the way lessons on gender can be taught in schools.

Already, transgender people have sued over several of the policies and are likely to challenge more of them in court.

Civil rights lawyers who are handling the cases have asserted that, in some instances, Trump’s orders violate laws adopted by Congress and protections in the Constitution — and that they overstep the authority of the president.

There could be similar questions for this order, for instance: Can the president demand that the NCAA change its policies?

NCAA President Charlie Baker told Republican senators in December that the organization would follow federal law. The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The order came a day after three former teammates of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas filed a lawsuit accusing the NCAA, Ivy League, Harvard and their own school, Penn, of conspiring to allow Thomas to compete at conference and national championships.

The lawsuit, which makes similar allegations of another filed last year, alleges the defendants violated Title IX by allowing Thomas to swim “and acted in bad faith.”

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, M.L. Price, Geoff Mulvihill and Eddie Pells contributed to this report. Press Herald reporters Riley Board and Daniel Kool contributed reporting.