Maine House censures lawmaker for post about transgender student
The Maine State House in Augusta lit up at night during the 2024 legislative session. (Emma Davis/ Maine Morning Star)
The Maine House of Representatives voted to censure Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) for posting on her legislative Facebook page photographs and personal details about a transgender high school athlete.
Days after the post, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold funding from Maine for not complying with his executive order seeking to ban transgender women from competing in sports that correspond with their gender identity. In her post, Libby referred to a policy of the Maine Principals' Association that continues to allow such participation in scholastic sports in accordance with the Maine Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, among other protected classes.
After the 75-70 vote Tuesday night to censure — an official statement of condemnation by the Legislature — Libby declined to submit an apology to the body, meaning she is in violation of the House rules and therefore unable to cast a vote or speak on the floor until she complies.
'I urge you, and indeed every member of this body, to recommit to keeping kids out of the political fray as has long been observed in both our state and federal politic,' Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford) said to Libby after the vote. 'Maine kids and all Maine people deserve better.'
Fecteau explained on the floor that he reached out to Libby earlier this week to request she take down the post, which has since received national attention, but she refused.
In a floor speech ahead of the vote, Libby began her remarks referencing other policy decisions, including criticizing how the Legislature and governor handled the COVID-19 pandemic and passage of a law expanding access to abortion later in pregnancy. The comments, however, drew several point of order objections as lawmakers asked Libby to keep her comments to the resolution at hand. Those objections bubbled to a chorus when the representative said, 'Boys participating in girls sports is not fair.'
House Majority Leader Matt Moonen (D-Portland), who proposed the censure, pointed to the Legislature's code of ethics, which states that members are 'charged with civility and responsible conduct inside and outside of the State House' and 'entrusted with the security, safety, health, prosperity, respect and general well-being of those the legislator serves.'
House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) argued the code of ethics does not refer to online or social media posts, and that Libby's post also didn't violate Facebook's community standards.
'This censure motion makes a mockery of the censure process,' Faulkingham said. 'It sets a standard that says that the majority party, when they're displeased with a social media post that upsets them, can censure a member of the minority party, and by a majority vote, censure them.'
In a statement issued after the vote, Faulkingham also accused Democrats of using what he referred to as a 'sham' censure to distract from the supplemental budget proposal to address an imminent Medicaid funding shortfall that is currently still in limbo.
'Instead of solving pressing problems,' he wrote, 'they have attempted to divert public attention to a social media post.'
Democrats characterized the moment differently.
'Recognizing the gravity of these harmful actions should not be a partisan issue,' Moonen said on the House floor. It arguably had not been before the censure motion, Moonen added, pointing to comments from Maine Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage about Libby's actions. While Savage criticized the Maine Principals Association's decision in an interview with WGAN, he called for those sharing Libby's post to have 'a dose of humanity.'
'I think if you're a young person who is struggling with identity, I don't think we need to be putting you at the center of anything and making you a focal point for an entire state or nation,' Savage said.
Trump administration launches investigation into Maine schools over transgender policy
While some Republican representatives expressed their disapproval of Libby's actions, they stopped short Tuesday of taking official action to reprimand their colleague.
'I think my colleague's actions were cruel, callous and reprehensible,' said Rep. David Boyer (R-Poland). However, Boyer explained he'd be voting against censure. 'I have concerns about regulating members' conduct on social media,' he said.
Rep. Jennifer Poirier (R-Skowhegan) said what legislators should be asking is whether Libby is being afforded freedom of speech.
'This youth's name and picture, similar to those used in her post, could be found easily with a simple Google search,' Poirier said. 'If Rep. Libby had posted the same picture, the same name with sentiments of congratulations, would we be here doing the censure right now? I think we know the answer to that.'
Democratic lawmakers pushed back, describing the post as 'doxing,' or sharing personal identifying information about someone with malicious intent. Rep. Jan Dodge (D-Belfast) said the narrative Libby posted about the student took the post well beyond the act of publishing a photo of a minor online.
'I'd like to note that the representative from Auburn had the forethought to blur the faces of some of the student athletes in the social media post, but not this athlete,' Dodge said.
Rep. Michael Lemelin (R-Chelsea) — who was censured last year for implying that the Legislature's passage of the bill expanding access to abortion later in pregnancy caused the Lewiston shooting by invoking God's wrath — pushed back on accusations of doxing because Libby has not said she intended to do harm. Lemelin then referred to the act of censuring Libby as 'a lynching.'
Rep. Christina Mitchell (D-Cumberland), a teacher who represents the county where the student in the post resides, said parents have reached out to her to express their upset and concern.
'The representative from Auburn's actions have directly harmed the school, the families and our children in my community, and it's all happening because one person, an adult, a legislator, chose to use a child to score political points,' Mitchell said.
Other Democrats echoed this sentiment in their remarks, arguing lawmakers should 'keep the kids out of it.'
'Before social media coarsened our civic discourse, it was pretty much universally accepted,' Rep. William Bridgeo (D-Augusta) said. 'Any effort to ignore or undermine that principle is unacceptable and it does need to be condemned.'
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