(LifeSiteNews) — Maine GOP Senator Susan Collins has added her name to a petition that would ensure students are treated according to their sex.

On Monday, the social media account of the state’s Republican Party shared a photo of Collins’ signature appearing on a petition that seeks to ban gender-confused students from using bathrooms and locker rooms and playing on sports teams that do not align with their God-given sex.

“Senator Collins supports Title IX, which provides opportunities for girls and women to compete in sports that they did not have prior to the passage of this landmark law,” spokesman Blake Kernen told the Maine Morning Start via email this week. “That federal law makes distinctions on the basis of sex, not on the basis of gender identity, thus promoting fair competition.”

The petition is being spearheaded by Protect Girls Sports, which will need just under 70,000 signatures by February 2026 to place it on the ballot next fall.

Kristina Parker, communications director of the state’s Republican Party, said that the party supports the measure because “Maine’s Democrat legislature and governor has refused to comply with Title IX and has forced the hand of Mainers.”

Since February, President Trump and liberal Maine Governor Janet Mills have clashed over “transgender” males being allowed to compete in girls’ school sports in the Pine Tree State. Trump warned Mills at a White House event, “you better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding.” His Department of Education subsequently opened an investigation into Maine’s compliance with Title IX, though later acquiesced to the state and unfroze funding.

During the dispute between President Trump and Governor Mills earlier this year, Collins said she would continue to fight for federal funding for the state but that she also opposed the state’s position on the matter.

“I agree with the federal government’s position that biological males should not compete in girls and women’s athletics,” she said, noting that “Title IX mandated equal access to athletic resources and facilities on the basis of sex – not on the basis of gender identity. Safe and fair athletic competition has been one of the keys to the success of Title IX.”

In May, the U.S. Supreme Court restored the legislative voting privileges of a Maine Republican lawmaker who had been censured for pointing out that male pole-vaulters competing against females have a distinct advantage over them. State lawmakers have also voted to give $6 million in taxpayer funds to prop up Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and Maine Family Planning after the Trump administration halted Medicaid funding to abortion businesses nationwide.

At the same time, multiple school districts are pushing back on woke ideology. Local media reports that several parents’ rights groups are slowly changing policies to ensure pro-LGBT laws are scaled back.

Collins, 72, has been a Republican U.S. senator since 1997. She is widely seen as a liberal on social issues. In fact, she has supported homosexual “marriage” as well as other pro-LGBT legislation, though at other times she has opposed left-wing social policies. She notably did not vote for Amy Coney Barrett to be confirmed to the Supreme Court in 2020.

Earlier this year, 51 Republican senators demanded answers from the FDA about approval of chemical abortion pills. The only Republicans to not sign the letter were Alaska GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski and Collins. Collins also joined Murkowski in voting for a Democratic bill that failed to pass but would have forced every state to allow insurance companies to cover embryo-destructive in vitro fertilization.

Kernen told the Maine Morning Start that Collins “will not be involved in the state referendum campaign because, as a federal official, she does not advocate on state ballot issues.”