Appeals Court Rules Maine Can Enforce LGBT Policies on Christian School to Qualify for Tuition Program

July 9, 2026

A federal appeals court has ruled that Maine may require private schools to abide by the state’s LGBT nondiscrimination policies in order for families at those schools to qualify for a public tuition assistance program.

Christianity Today reports that the ruling came last week in the case of Crosspoint Church v. A. Pender Makin et al., which challenged whether Crosspoint’s Bangor Christian School must follow the Maine Human Rights Act for enrolled families to qualify for state tuition benefits.

Circuit Judge William Kayatta authored the panel’s opinion which rejected Crosspoint’s request for a permanent injunction that would have barred the state from applying the law to the school.

Kayatta wrote that “Crosspoint has not shown that specific anti-BCS animus motivated” the state policy.

However, the panel agreed with Crosspoint on its challenge to Maine’s religious expression rule, concluding that the rule violated the church’s right to the free exercise of religion.

“[W]e conclude Crosspoint has not succeeded on its free-exercise claims against the Religious Nondiscrimination Rule or the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Rule,” wrote Kayatta, who added, “Crosspoint has failed to convince us that the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Rule should receive strict scrutiny as a content- or viewpoint-based regulation of speech.”

According to Christianity Daily, Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute, which represented the church, commented on the ruling, saying, “We are disappointed that though the First Circuit acknowledges that religious institutions can teach what they believe, it would then refuse to allow conduct consistent with those beliefs.”

First Liberty Institute plans to appeal the ruling.

The appeals court panel chose to return the case to the district court for additional proceedings consistent with Kayatta’s opinion.

Photo: top, Credit: Bangor Christian School website