WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration said Wednesday it is suing Maine's education department for not complying with the government's push to ban transgender athletes in girls' sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that bars discrimination in education based on sex.

The lawsuit follows weeks of feuding between the Republican administration and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills that has led to threats to cut off crucial federal funding and a clash at the White House when she told the president: "We'll see you in court."

"We are going to continue to fight for women," Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a news conference alongside former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has emerged as a public face of the opposition to transgender athletes.

Trump's departments of Education and Health and Human Services have said the Maine agency is violating the federal Title IX antidiscrimination law by allowing transgender girls to participate on girls' teams.

The lawsuit reflects a stark philosophical turnabout from the position on gender identity issues taken during Democratic administrations.

Under President Joe Biden, the government tried to extend civil rights policies to protect transgender people. In 2016, the Justice Department, then led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, sued North Carolina over a law that required transgender people to use public restrooms and showers that corresponded the gender on their birth certificate.

Maine officials have refused to agree with a settlement that would have banned transgender students from sports, arguing that the law does not prevent schools from letting transgender athletes participate.

Trump signed an executive order in February, "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," that gave federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with his administration's interpretation of "sex" as the gender someone was assigned at birth.

Trump was joined at the signing of that order by Gaines and other female athletes who were in support of a ban. Gaines tied with a transgender athlete for fifth place in a 2022 NCAA championship and has testified before lawmakers across the country on the issue. She and others frame the issue as women's rights.

During a February meeting with governors, Trump threatened to pull federal funding from Maine if the state did not comply with his executive order. Mills responded: "We'll see you in court."

Maine sued the administration this month after the Department of Agriculture said it was pausing some money for the state's educational programs because of what the administration contended was Maine's failure to comply with the Title IX law. A federal judge on Friday ordered the administration to unfreeze funds intended for a Maine child nutrition program.

Sarah Foster, Maine's assistant attorney general, said last week in a letter to the Education Department that nothing in the law "prohibits schools from allowing transgender girls and women to participate on girls' and women's sports teams."

Questions over the rights of transgender people have become a major political issue in the past five years.

Twenty-six states have laws or policies barring transgender girls from girls' school sports. GOP-controlled states have also been banning gender-affirming health care for transgender minors and restricting bathroom use in schools and sometimes other public buildings.

In his 2024 race, Trump campaigned against the participation of transgender athletes in sports. As president, he has signed executive orders to do that and to use a rigid definition of the sexes, rather than gender, for federal government purposes. The orders are being challenged in court.