As questions over sports and health care for transgender people roil Maine and the nation, advocates say Maine’s protections remain strong.

The Trump administration's Health and Human Services Department is expanding its Title IX probe into transgender sports participation in Maine to include the state's primary governing body for high school athletics and a high school that has been at the center of controversy after a biological male competing for the school won a women's statewide track and field meet.

Two days after being asked about the findings of a DHHS investigation into Maine, a spokesperson echoes language President Donald Trump used in his executive order banning transgender women from women's sports.

The federal civil rights law, which was passed in 1972, ensures a right to equal treatment in educational spaces.