Leyland Streiff- Segment 2

And welcome back to Inside Main on WGAN. I'm your host, Josh Filler. We're going to be joined here in a moment with Leland Strife from Maine Girl's Dad. And we'll be talking to him about his organization and what they're doing, our producer, our illustrious producer, Jeremy Mixer, is in the process of getting Leland on the line here. We are having some technical issues. But as soon as he's on, we will commence the conversation. And of course, thereafter, our phone lines will be open. 879-9426, 879 WGAN. So one of the things I do want Leland to explain is, you know, what his organization is about, what they're doing. I am familiar with the organization, and I think I've had others on the line who have explained as well. But I think Leland is the founder, is in a unique position to talk about the group and what they're doing. So he is ready to go, they tell me. All right. Leland, welcome to the program. How are you, sir? I'm fantastic. It's a beautiful Saturday. Yeah, it's only, what, 28 degrees out? Better than 18. True. At least we're in double digits. All right, Leland. So I've been hyping you up here. Tell us about main girl dads what it's about and what it is you're trying to achieve. Yeah, fantastic. Let's do it. So Maine Girl Dads is a coalition of about 8,000-plus dads that got together about 12 months ago now, really with, you know, one sort of single-minded idea, which was the fact that, you know, we wanted to stand up for sex-based rights for our daughters and ensure that there were not males. going into female private spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms, nor into female sports opportunities and playing on girls' teams. If we all remember over the past couple of years, there have been multiple males that have won state championships in Maine. So about a year ago, we got together as a group of dads. non-political. I mean, we span every single part of the political spectrum. Politics has nothing to do with the message. And we petitioned the main principals association to do something about this, to change course, to provide policies that aligned individual school districts to federal Title IX. Of course, the MPA did not do anything about that. We held a rally at the state capital. We urged lawmakers to do something about this.

Over the summer, I think several things were ultimately proposed. Nothing moved forward. Our state legislatures were not able to do anything. So what we did at the end of the summer was a true citizens initiative. We got together with a couple of other amazing groups like the main education initiative to file a citizen's initiative to be able to put forward a ballot measure. that would harmonize state law with federal Title IX and ensure that sports and private spaces like locker rooms, bathrooms, and showers in our public schools in Maine, would be designated by sex, male, female, and in the case of sports, co-ed. So that's interesting that you brought up Title IX because the lawyer and me, the sort of alarm bells went off when I heard the Title IX piece because under the Biden administration, and there is actually under Title VII, it's not Title IX, you have a Supreme Court case, which in both cases, the Biden administration under Title IX, the Supreme Court and the Bostock decision under Title VII interpreted sex, defined sex to include. gender identity. So I don't know the specific language that you're using, but can you maybe walk us through why? What I would be afraid of is that you'd get some activist judge or some activist governor and say, well, discrimination on the basis of gender identity is discrimination on the basis of sex. Therefore, you must let the male into the female space. Right, right. Yeah, I think there's several things with that. So one, I'm not a lawyer. So you know a lot more than I do, and there's a lot of smarter people out there that know more than I do. But from the little I know, what you're saying is exactly what is the crux of the issue when it comes to the Supreme Court cases that are happening right now. And it does seem even the liberal justice like Sotomayor are specifically targeting what you're talking about, which is gender and sex need to be defined. And if they are defined, they are inherently different. And if they are different, that entire argument falls apart. So that is happening on sort of the national stage from a federal Supreme Court standpoint. When it comes to our specific ballot measure. The language is incredibly simple. So I definitely encourage everybody to go to protect girlsports in Maine.com, read the entire act as it's written. And what it does is it defines sex. It does not talk about gender identity. Okay. So you define sex. Okay. Exactly. Yep. And it defines sex, of course, as your biological status as recorded on your original birth certificate. And so that definition of sex and therefore the designation of school sports activities, participation as well as private facilities being designated by sex maps back to that definition. I think the last thing I'm going a little further than what you asked is this is where I start to get very confused as, you know, beyond sort of a main girl dad and the petition leader for the Protect Girls in Sports and Maine Act.

is this idea that we've now confused gender and sex together. We've been told and assured, and if you look at the definition, according to W-Path, according to the American Medical Association, those are definitionally two different things. Gender identity is a social construct. It is a role that you play in society. Sex is an innate immutable biological status. They are two different things. So to include somebody based off of their gender identity, I don't believe the price for that is discrimination on the basis of sex, which is what is happening right now. If someone has a gender identity, fantastic. That's great. No problem with that. But that does not mean that we now as a society in Maine pretend like sex isn't real, sex doesn't exist, and sex is not a protected class by state law and federal law. Yeah, I'm with the, I take the Dave Chappelle approach. You know, if you want to believe that you're a man and a woman's body have at it, but the rest of us don't have to play along at the societal level. Nobody can force you to believe something that you don't want to believe. And believing that you're something that you're not doesn't make it so. And I think you're right. I mean, that is the core difference between, and I think you've got to distinguish between sex and gender have long been viewed as interoperable, that they're basically one, one side of the same, opposite side of the same coin. Gender identity, believing that you are a male trapped in a female body or a female trapped in a male body. That was called gender identity disorder. Then it was called gender dysphoria. And now it's called transgenderism. And it's evolved, I think, intentionally to try and move away from the disorder. definition because I think that's correct. Look, if you believe, there are people out there, the furries, if you follow this at all, these people that believe that they're animals, it's the same thing. A little bit. I've heard of this a little bit. Yeah, I mean, it's bizarre. But, you know, if you watch Matt Walsh's movie, what is a woman? He interviews one of these people. And she, you know, she runs around with wolves, with wild animals. It's nuts. And, you know, the fact that these people believe that there's something that they are not, okay, it is a disorder fundamentally. And we used to treat it as such. And now we've moved into this place where it's a civil right. And, you know, when you said, well, you had to define sex, that's kind of sad because up until about 10 or 15 years ago, that would not have been necessary. Everybody would have understood it. But here we are in 2026, and you're having to do that. Exactly. And I think that honestly, what is the most insidious part of all of that is that we are asking young children.

to ignore biological reality and their own innate understanding of the world around them to accept the delusion and the sort of social ideology created by specific adults. That's what I think is so crazy. I'll give you two sort of examples of it. You know, one is, you know, my daughter, when she was in school a couple of years ago, when she was seven, came home and told me about how, you know, a teacher had read a book about gender with pictures of, you know, men with beards, but they were in dresses. And she was like, I was really uncomfortable. And I said, oh, like what was in it? And she said, well, it talked, my teacher was saying that, you know, that you could be a boy or a girl or you could be both of those things or none of those things. And gender is just a feeling. And I was like, wow, that must have been very confusing. What did you say? And she said, well, I just raised my hand and said, I don't understand. That makes no sense. I don't feel like a girl. I just am a girl. And I said, exactly, you were smarter than everybody else that was in that room that has now created this idea that they're trying to force on girls. And I think that on children at large that innately know reality. And I think that, you know, if we take that a step further and apply that to what we're talking about here, we are telling girls. So I'll give you an example. At our turn an event, there was a 13-year-old, an eighth-grade girl there. who said she does not feel comfortable anymore changing in the locker rooms in her school. She plays sports there. And because there are males, some identifying as females, identifying as girls that change in there, others that just go in there now because they're allowed to and they watch girls change. And she said, I'm so uncomfortable that I go into a stall in the bathroom now by myself and I have to change my clothes every day to be able to play sports. And she said, thank you so much that you guys are doing this. Yeah, that's... Our society right now is saying she's wrong. Yeah. That girl is wrong. And no, that is not okay. No, I, it is very sad. Well, the good news is, is I think the tide has definitely turned. And the fact that your organization has got 8,000 dads that are part of it is a step in the right direction. So you have this ballot initiative. Where are you relative to that initiative? And what's the next step? Yeah, we're in a great spot. So like I said, we were sort of a founding force on the initiative, banded together with tons of amazing people across different organizations, across the political spectrum, across Maine. And we collected signatures throughout the winter months. We submitted over 80,000 to the Secretary of State on February 2nd. We got a call from Shenna on the 17th of March, where she said that we had enough signatures. to overcome the 68,000 threshold of validated signatures and that she finds our petition valid. That petition is now moving towards the legislature, and it will be heard by the legislature, and they can do one of two things. They can either sign it into law, which they should read the room and do, or it can be said, they can do nothing and it can be sent to the November ballot, which is, you know, probably the likely scenario of what's going to happen. So that's what we're waiting for now. We will know that decision. should know that decision before their session closes in mid-April.

So, Leland, if it goes to the ballot, which I think it will, the Democrats are tied to the most radical wing in the party. They're not going to, they're not going to do anything. I've always believed they want the courts to rescue them from this. They're not going to do it themselves. If it goes to the ballot, the language that will be on the ballot, will it be your language or is Shennebello is going to write the question? She'll write the question. So the question does need to be written off, you know, starting with an act that we proposed, which was our language, that then went to the Secretary of State, was refined, validated, and then became our petition. So that's what you can find on our website and what was on the petition that people signed. She needs to then constitutionally create a clear and concise question summarizing that. I guess that has been to interpretation. I'm laughing out loud because I've seen what she's done before. She will mutilate that language. But go ahead. So we'll see. So at the end of April, she will take a crack at that. And then in early May, we will need public comment to be able to address that. I think that, look, the optimist in me. would say the difference between this and something like voter ID, for example, that proposed bill was like seven or eight pages. And a lot of complicated sort of, you know, things were sort of baked into that. Ours is half a page and incredibly simple. It defines sex. And then it designates sports and private facilities by sex, male, female, and co-ed. That's basically it. So I think that, you know, There is not even the mention of gender. There are things, she would have to introduce new concepts that are not actually written in the language of the proposed act. to be able to mutilate the question. Now, knowing her, she's going to find a way to do that, so I'm interested to see what it's going to become, but I'm still optimistic that if she does her constitutional duty and she sticks to the language and the concepts as written in the act, I think mayors are pretty smart. And one thing that I would say is that even some of the language she's already written, like the title that was put on our petition, is great. An act to designate sports participation and facilities by sex. That's exactly it. If we get language like that, everybody knows what we're talking about. And everybody across the political spectrum, 80% of Mainers, are looking for that and are willing to vote for that. So if it goes to the ballot, which is what I think is going to happen here, do you have the resources to wage the campaign that's going to be necessary to get this over the hump? That was one of the things that the voter ID. initiative did not have or if they had it, they didn't spend it, and if they spent it, they didn't spend it very wisely. Do you guys have a campaign, a strategy, and the resources to get the message out, particularly if Bellows plays fast and loose with the language?

Yes, I mean, we do and we're putting all of that together as we go. So yes, we have a plan. We have a strategy. We've got allies and advocates across the country and in Maine. So we do feel confident about the team and the resources that we're pulling together to be able to do this for sure. Yeah, because I could see her introducing concepts like turning this into a discriminatory initiative that you're trying to discriminate. against transgender students and transgender kids. I mean, that's the argument that they use generally is that this is in fact discriminatory when it's, that's Orwellian. It's the other. It's completely the opposite. But that won't stop them. And I could definitely see her trying to insert language to that effect. And if the average person doesn't know any better, they might think that this is an attempt to discriminate against students and might get turned off by it. So, I mean, obviously that's rank speculation, but there's history to support it. Yeah, I mean, I agree. I mean, that's probably the primary way that I could see it try to be twisted. Obviously, if you look at the news, that's how the news twists everything right now. It all says that we are banning transgender athletes. Couldn't be further from the truth. Everybody has sex. Everybody's allowed to play. It's the same thing. If you look at the news that came out about the IOC this week, you know, 99% of those headlines all say that it's banning somebody. It's not banning anybody. Everybody that was... that was able to make the Olympics continues to be able to participate in the Olympics. It just means that they're doubling down on the fact females play in a female category and males play in a male category. So, you know, I agree. I think that that's where, you know, we probably have seen the most bias and where I would expect the bias to be injected into the question. But again, I'm hoping that, you know, people are smarter than that. I mean, we're seeing societally, things have changed. This is, this is not 2020. The public discourse and understanding of this as a concept and an issue has changed. People are educated on this. People are tired of this as an issue. And I honestly really think people are all looking for a solution. Yeah, I think you're right. The tide has definitely turned. I think the biggest moment in that cultural shift was Matt Walsh's movie, What is a Woman? Because he exposed these people by just letting them talk. And it was alarming. I mean, that movie showed just how incoherent the theory is and how radical some of these people are, particularly when it comes, you know, to children. And again, you know, what we're talking about here is the tip of the iceberg, the sports and the locker rooms. But don't forget, I mean, these surgeries, that's... I mean, that is so awful and so alarming where young kids, 16-year-old girls are having double mastectomies performed on them because they're in a state of depression. And yet, you know, their doctors are saying, oh, no, you're transgender. You have gender dysphoria. And then they tell the parents if you don't mutilate your kid.

your child will commit suicide. In fact, there was a lawsuit out of White Plains, New York, where the doctors were actually found liable. And I think that's really probably the next step after this is to address that barbarism. Yeah, I mean, it's obviously being addressed to an extent already. I mean, the American Association of Plastic Surgeons has obviously come out and said that they're, you know, they're against surgeries for anybody under 18. And obviously, to your point, as you're seeing the financial liability come to fruition, you know, the world changes, you know, when financials are laid out in front of it and when there is that sort of leverage being put out. You know, there is, you're right, there's been some found liable already. for medical malpractice against them and not having informed consent of what they were agreeing to. There are others that have been involved in our campaign, you know, like Chloe Cole that came and was part of our rally. You know, last March at the Capitol Staps urging the legislature to do something about this. And for people that don't know Chloe Cole, you know, she's, you know, autistic, depressed. And she was put on puberty blockers at 13, double mastectomy at 15 by 16. had realized, you know, what the wrongs that had been done to her. And now she's, you know, going to be, you know, have medical issues for the rest of her life, likely infertile, and is suing Kaiser Permanente. And she's, you know, one of many stories. You know, she's friends with Layla James. You know, similar story. Puberty blockers at 12, double mastectomy. It's 13 years old. God. I mean, these things are real. These things are happening. And I think, you know, to bring that back even to the sports issue, because it's a similar misconception, people say, oh, that's like, you know, that's like a boogey man. It's like a right wing boogeyman. People, these are like stories that aren't real. People are just saying this stuff. Like, you know, you hear Graham Platner saying the other day. There's no girls coming forward and saying that there's, you know, men in the bathrooms. It's not happening. People are making this up. It is happening. Girls are saying this stuff. And girls are scared to say this stuff exactly because men like that are getting up there or Janet Mills are getting up there and telling them that they're wrong, telling them that they're biggest for even standing up for their own instincts and standing up for their own rights. All right, Leland. We appreciate the call very much. Thank you for the insights. We'll definitely be chatting with you again, I'm sure. You're listening to Inside Maine on WGAN. We'll be right back right after these messages.