A third Maine school district decided Tuesday to keep fighting a state lawsuit over transgender policies at a raucous meeting that was tinged with religious debate.
Sullivan-based Regional School Unit 24 voted to retain legal counsel and will keep in place a policy barring transgender students from playing on sports teams and using bathrooms or locker rooms that align with their gender identities. The Maine Human Rights Commission sued it and six other districts over similar restrictions since last month.
The vote in the Down East school district followed a long and tense public comment period marked by frequent religious appeals on both sides. Several speakers identified themselves as local pastors, with some on both sides of the debate quoting the Bible to bolster their points.
Charles Kelley, a pastor from Steuben, implored the board to keep its policy in place while denying the concept of transgender identity, which is recognized by major medical groups.
“There’s no place for argument; that’s the word of God,” he told the board. “If there’s evil that comes, if there’s a wickedness that comes, it’s your duty to protect.”
On the other side of the debate, Faith Lane of Gouldsboro offered an interpretation of Genesis, arguing the school should rescind its policy because transgender people are “closer to the image of God” than cisgender people, drawing derision from conservatives in the crowd.
“How far do you intend to build policy upon mistranslated literature and religious bigotry?” she asked. “This is a slippery slope for this community.”
Fighting the suit will force the district to fork over unknown legal fees to a pair of new lawyers, including Jack Baldacci from the conservative Augusta-based law firm Steve Smith Trial Lawyers. The district’s normal counsel, Drummond Woodsum, has advised school districts to follow state law.
It’s the third district to maintain its posture since the state lawsuit was filed, following districts based in Baileyville and Livermore Falls. In RSU 73, the district that retained Baldacci last week, board chair Shari Ouellette told fellow members that the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom would help the district cover legal costs. RSU 24 members made no public mention of any outside funding source.
While the lawsuit facing the school district is over state law, the U.S. Supreme Court will soon weigh in on a separate case revolving around the conflicts between federal and state interpretations of civil rights law as it applies to trans rights. The case will almost certainly impact the case against the school boards as well as the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Maine over the issue.
Rep. Mike Soboleski, R-Phillips, who has traveled to board meetings across the state, urged the Down East district to keep its policies in place. But the final speaker capping roughly two hours of public comment was Crystal Burke of Hancock with an argument about dollars and cents.
“All these people are upset right now,” she said. “How upset are they going to be if you stand your course, stand your ground for a political test and they start having to watch their taxes go up?”
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.
