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Democratic state lawmakers turned back legislation that aimed to diminish and marginalize transgender Mainers. In addition to showing that these lawmakers weren’t easily bullied by the president and his vengeful moves, the votes, particularly in the Maine Senate, were a small bright spot amidst an ongoing flood of troubling actions from the Trump administration.
Lawmakers in Augusta considered a flurry of Republican-backed bills that aimed to scale back the rights of transgender Mainers, and in the case of a proposed rewrite of the Maine Human Right Act, to essentially erase their existence. All the bills were rejected by the Legislature’s Democratic majority, although the Maine House did narrowly vote in support of a bill to bar transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports. The measure was rejected by the Senate, ensuring its failure this legislative session.
“I, too, feel sadness that these bills are before us,” Sen. Rick Bennett said before a Senate vote on one of the bills this week. “Sadness that in a moment when we could be lifting up young people, we are entertaining proposals that single some of them out, setting them apart as ‘other.’ I’m saddened by the growing tendency to turn away from the better angels of our nature. Saddened by the pull toward a culture of fear, the politics of division, the hardening of silos and the temptation to stigmatize those who are different.”
Bennett was the only Republican to vote against a bill to ban transgender athletes from girls sports teams. The bill passed in the Maine House.
Despite the positive outcome, there was damage from the debate surrounding these bills. One transgender athlete did not compete in this month’s track and field state championships despite earning a spot in the pole vault competition.
It is a reminder that the often vitriolic and personal debate around transgender rights is damaging regardless of the outcome. State Rep. Laurel Libby had identified and demonized the athlete on social media. She was censured by the Maine House of Representatives, stripping her of her vote in the chamber, but the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that she be allowed to return to the Legislature.
After Libby’s social media posts, President Donald Trump used Maine’s adherence to its laws and policies that allow transgender athletes to compete in high school sports to attack the state and Gov. Janet Mills, who stood up to threats from Trump. His administration has withheld funds from Maine and launched numerous investigations for alleged violations of Title IX, although legal experts have said that the administration’s interpretation of the federal law does not align with past interpretations of the landmark law that increased women’s participation in sports.
Several lawsuits are pending.
While the Maine Legislature upheld the rights and dignity of transgender Americans, the Trump administration continues to ignore constitutional protections and to harass and intimidate people across the country.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla was shoved out of a press conference in Los Angeles and thrown to the floor and handcuffed, a move that was condemned by Maine’s senators, Susan Collins and Angus King. Amidst protests over immigration raids in the city, which prompted Trump to deploy the National Guard and U.S. Marines, Padilla walked into the press conference and tried to ask a question of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
Noem’s security team said he didn’t identify himself and lunged at her. Video from the event shows that both are false. They said Noem didn’t know who he was, which is odd because he is the top Democrat on the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety.
Many Republicans suggested that Padilla should have been more polite in his approach. As Sen. King said during a press conference in Portland last week, “the 1st Amendment doesn’t say ‘free polite speech.’ The protection is not for politeness, it is for speech.”
As King reiterated numerous times in his comments at the Portland Jetport, echoing Padilla’s own comments, it doesn’t really matter that Padilla is a U.S. senator. No one should be treated as poorly as he was by the secretary of homeland security and her security detail.
Meanwhile, the actions Padilla tried to ask about — the roundup, detention and deportation of immigrants — continue. These sweeps, often done by masked men in unmarked cars, have swept up people immigration officials readily admit are in the U.S. legally.
In Maine, several Hispanic men were detained in Calais in March after a call from a local resident. One of the men who provided legal documentation showing his right to live and work in the U.S. was detained for 65 days anyway. Immigration officials admit that his detention was the result of an administrative oversight and human error.
Other immigrants in Maine have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for minor traffic violations.
Amid the chaos, fear and cruelty of these raids, President Trump now — belatedly — seems to understand that arresting and deporting the men and women, many of whom are likely in the U.S. legally, who staff American food processors and hotels are vital parts of our economy. His administration briefly said it was looking for carveouts for these industries and ICE raids at some fish and meat packing plants, restaurants and hotels were paused. They’ve already reversed course, however, highlighting the idiocy and inconsistency of his extremely costly mass deportation efforts.
As Sen. Bennett urged earlier this week, we must turn back to “the better angels of our nature” and away from the “culture of fear, the politics of division … the temptation to stigmatize those who are different.” Because what the federal government is doing now is cruel and harmful, not only to those targeted, but to the wellbeing of our country.
