Maine Democrat says transgender athletes make women better

A Maine state representative made a confusing claim about transgender athletes and men competing in women's sports.

The state has had a tumultuous 2025 during President Donald Trump's second term, as state representatives have battled the president over his executive order to keep men out of women's sports.

Although Maine's university system eventually fell in line with the order to protect its federal funding, irreversible damage had already been done by letting boys compete in girls' sports, particularly in February, when a boy won a girls' pole vaulting competition.

'It takes a lot of guts for someone to say, "I'm not going to accept male privilege."'

Democratic state Rep. Rafael Macias from Maine's District 51 appeared on the "Muddy Waters Podcast" to discuss that very incident. Macias started by claiming that fellow state Rep. Laurel Libby (R) had "doxxed a young man" who simply "wanted to play sports" when she posted a picture of the transgender athlete competing against boys first, then girls.

It was soon after when Macias made a bizarre claim about how men competing in women's sports actually makes women better.

"It's an individual sport, so if you're worried about who you're competing [against], particularly if they're stronger and they can jump higher, I think that makes everybody in the field better, you know, jumping higher, running faster," he claimed.

Macias then cited the fact that while many men cannot complete a "four-minute mile," there are female athletes who can come close.

"They can run faster than me. They can run faster than you and probably most men that I know who can't run the four-minute mile," Macias claimed. "There are women that are doing that. So, you know, you can compare men and female and say men are stronger, men can jump higher, run faster, longer, all that good stuff, and that women shouldn't play in men's sports."

Confusingly, Macias then stated that women not being allowed in men's sports is "the whole reason behind Title IX."

RELATED: University of Maine System falls in line with Trump's prohibition on men in women's sports

Host Chuck Ellis immediately retorted, "Let's be clear about a couple things. Nobody on our side in any way is saying that we have any problem with women trying to compete in men's sports. That's not — nobody's saying that at all," he began. "The reason for Title IX wasn't that people didn't want to allow women to compete in male sports but that they couldn't."

Ellis noted the obvious truth that "men are stronger" and "faster" than women on average, and national stories of transgender athletes breaking women's records have highlighted this.

Macias himself admitted in the interview that the pole vaulting athlete in question came in first when competing as a girl, but when the height he jumped against females is compared to the male athletes' results, his height would have landed him in 10th place against boys, as Blaze News previously reported.

Still, Macias expressed that he had an issue with Rep. Libby posting a photo of the teen, who was in 10th grade at the time.

RELATED: 'A lot of people say it's not happening!' Blaze News investigates: A definitive list of men who have dominated women's sports

Field hockey players run on the track at Greely High School in Cumberland, Maine. Photo by Ben McCanna/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

"She posted a picture of him when he was competing with boys and then a picture of her when she was competing with girls. And I'm using the pronouns out of respect for this person," Macias explained. "It takes a lot of guts for someone to say, 'I'm not going to accept male privilege.' And I'm using that term 'male privilege.'"

Macias and the host briefly debated what male privilege is, and Macias cited the example of a woman feeling afraid while walking through a parking lot at night while a man may not feel afraid.

Ellis replied that this was simply more evidence that men are more likely to be stronger or larger and, as such, less likely to be afraid in a similar situation.

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