School superintendent compares trans athletes in women's sports to 'civil rights struggles' in US

A Maine school superintendent is arguing that transgender athletes trying to compete in women's sports is yet another fight for civil rights like those in the past for racial equality and women's right to vote.

"In our country’s history, there have been many civil rights struggles, including, but not limited, to fights for women’s rights to vote, for racial equality and for gay marriage," Ryan Scallon, a school superintendent in the Maine city of Portland, said during a school board meeting Tuesday, according to Fox News.

He said that in such previous fights each of the fights the opposition ran on fear to ostracize those who think or look different.

"Today, I see that happening again with transgender or non-binary students, and in particular, our transgender athletes," Scallon also said.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that banned transgender athletes from competing in women's sports. 

Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills said she would not comply with the order, which resulted in Trump saying the state wouldn't get federal funding.

"I wasn’t interested in proactively speaking out on social matters or political matters," Scallon said in his speech. "That said, it is simply unacceptable that there are efforts from our federal government, and some in our state, to ostracize a student population that is estimated to be less than one percent of our student population."