Maine Says No to Transphobic Bills
Maine’s state senators shot down a series of anti-trans bills amid immense pressure from the federal government to enshrine transphobia into law.
by Alyssa Steinsiek
In an effort to break up the monotony of a fascist takeover of the federal government and daily unspeakable horrors taking place nationwide, here’s a bit of good news: Maine’s state legislature just said no to a proposed bill that would have banned transgender girls and young women from participating in sports!
LD 233 (which, I swear to you, is titled: An Act to Prohibit Biological Males from Participating in School Athletic Programs and Activities Designated for Females When State Funding Is Provided to the School—are there no poets left in lawmaking? Is brevity not the soul of wit?) passed Maine’s House of Representatives by just three votes last Friday, but failed to pass Maine’s Senate on Monday. If you’re a Mainer and want to know who to thank for the bill’s passage through the House, it was Democratic Representatives Stephan Bunker of Farmington, Wayne Farrin of Jefferson, Dani O'Halloran of Brewer, and David Rollins of Augusta. Give them a call, why don’t you?
In spite of its unwieldy name and unlike many state bills that are broadly discriminatory against transgender people, LD 233 is shockingly succinct. It reads: “A school administrative unit or an elementary school, secondary school or postsecondary educational institution in the State that receives any state funding may not allow a person whose biological sex assigned at birth is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for females.”
It’s a pleasant surprise to be spared one hundred pages of nonsense and get right into the bigotry without a bunch of fuss, but the bill is still a dud. None of the proponents of measures like this ever seem to have answers ready for questions about enforcement, seeing as demanding the medical records of children (or worse, anatomical evaluations from some sort of vile Genital Inspector) would be a massive violation of their right to privacy. Thankfully, the bill failed to pass… this time.
Maine Republicans have been firing off proposed bills all year that would curb participation in public life for trans Mainers, and while Democrats maintain a narrow majority in the state legislature, public opinion errs on the side of bigotry. It’s hard to say how long their senate can act as a bulwark against transphobic bills, especially since the Trump administration has been waging a terror campaign against the state since March.
After Governor Janet Mills told Trump in no uncertain terms that she would not allow trans youth to be discriminated against in her state, the Department of Agriculture froze federal funding to the state of Maine and tried to starve vulnerable children from low-income families to punish her. Maine filed suit to fight back, and the fed quickly reversed course.
Is it only a matter of time before Trump and his cronies take another stab at cowing the state into discriminating against trans people? It’s hard to say, but it is heartening to consider that Maine first established protection for trans people way back in 2005, and has explicit legal protection for trans Mainers in employment, housing, education, credit and public accommodations.
For now, trans folks in Maine remain protected by law. Hopefully those protections stay in place for a long time to come.
Alyssa Steinsiek is a trans woman journalist who reports on news relevant to the queer community and occasionally posts on BlueSky.
