The Maine Human Rights Commission is suing five school districts for policies restricting the rights of transgender students that it says create a hostile educational environment and are in violation of state law.

The suit, which was first reported by the Bangor Daily News, was filed Monday in Kennebec County Superior Court and comes amid heightened political tensions in Maine over transgender students’ participation in school sports. The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the state in a separate case over its policy allowing transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports.

The districts named in the case filed Monday are SAD70 in Hodgdon, RSU24 in Sullivan, RSU73 in Livermore Falls and the Baileyville and Richmond school districts.

Within the last year, all five districts have adopted policies that “create a hostile educational environment for gender non-conforming students” and that are in violation of the Maine Human Rights Act, the suit said.

The policies define sex as “biological sex” and seek to restrict students’ abilities to participate in sports and access school spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms that don’t align with the sex they were assigned at birth.

“Gender nonconforming students in defendants’ districts, and other school districts throughout Maine, are harmed by defendants’ policies because they cannot be assured that they will be protected from unlawful discrimination when they participate in athletic competitions against school districts which have adopted policies requiring students to participate on teams corresponding with their biological sex,” the suit said.

The Maine Human Rights Commission, a quasi-independent state agency charged with enforcing Maine’s anti-discrimination law, acknowledged in the suit that the case is unusual, but said the issues it raised cannot be addressed through its normal complaint process because transgender students are unwilling or unable to bring complaints to them out of fear of retaliation.

In addition, the policies have far-reaching impacts that require a state-wide resolution, the suit said.

This story will be updated.