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Maine Official Steps Down From School Liaison Role After Calling Opponents of Trans Athletes ‘Pedophilic’

Her October remarks at a Kennebunk meeting on transgender participation in girls’ sports prompted a conduct reminder from the chair, leading to her exit from the board’s school liaison post.

Overview

  • Kennebunk Select Board member Leslie Trentalange said parents seeking to bar trans-identified boys from girls’ sports show “pedophilic tendencies,” drawing gasps at the October meeting.
  • Board Chair Matthew Stratford cut in to say the comments were inappropriate and told her to stop, according to accounts of the session.
  • Trentalange immediately defended her remarks, saying she stood by them, then later issued a limited apology that did not retract the claims.
  • She has resigned her liaison role with the school board after the backlash, though she remains on the town’s Select Board.
  • Stratford later issued a statement stressing there is no place for harassment, discriminatory language, or disrespectful speech during meetings without naming Trentalange.