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Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘There was never a complaint': LGBTQ+ Mainers push back on call to ban trans athletes
Participants in the Portland Pride Parade on Congress Street on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star) From a young age, Lex Horwitz knew he did not identify as a girl, but it wasn't until he went to Bowdoin College that he fully understood his queer and transgender identity. One important and affirming step for Horwitz, now 28, was playing squash on the Bowdoin men's team. Horwitz said his trans identity was not supported by all his teammates on the women's team, so after ensuring he met the criteria of New England Small College Athletic Conference, he went from being captain of the women's varsity team to playing on the men's team in his senior year of college, in 2018. 'It was the best decision I've ever made in my entire life,' he said. 'Being able to switch teams, it completely saved my love of myself and my sport to be able to play on the team that affirmed my identity and I don't know where I'd be today, or who I'd be, without having that experience.' Horwitz is now a consultant and LGBTQ+ educator in Philadelphia, and coaches middle and high school sports. 'If I was not supported in switching teams, I most likely would have stopped playing squash,' he said, although being a collegiate athlete had always been his dream. Although being a college athlete had always been his dream, he said if he was not able to switch teams, he would have 'given it all up to protect and save my mental health and to protect my identity, even if I meant losing my sport, which is not a decision that any person should ever have to make: to choose yourself or your sport. We deserve to have both.' Though trans students have participated in Maine sports for years, the issue has been thrust into the national spotlight after a now-viral Facebook post by a Maine legislator. Now caught in the crosshairs of the politicized debate over trans rights is an already-marginalized group of young people whose privacy and well-being are at stake. 'Truly what we're seeing with trans athletes is a greater fear and hatred of trans people under the guise — or the mask of — sports,' Horwitz said, arguing that the debate is about much more than athletics. 'It's trans people's place in society, in our culture, which, of course, sports are a part of.' Last month, Republican Rep. Laurel Libby posted the name and photo of a transgender high school athlete, prompting President Donald Trump to threaten Maine Gov. Janet Mills over trans girls' participation in high school sports. In the weeks that followed, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services determined that Maine is in violation of Title IX, a civil rights law meant to protect people against sex-based discrimination, while Republican legislators pursued legislation that would bar trans girls from athletics, bathrooms and locker rooms at the state level. Libby's post was condemned by more than 140 people who testified during a public hearing last week on a related bill sponsored by Rep. Melanie Sachs (D-Freeport) that would ban adults from publishing private information about children online. Avery Alsop, a trans student and athlete at the University of Maine, told lawmakers, 'the never-ending calls to criminalize us … are a daily burden for us.' 'If anyone wants to discredit our bodies, spread misinformation about what we are, and frame us to push regressive ideologies, I will happily be there to oppose you,' Alsop wrote. 'But leave children out of this.' Trans athletes — who make up a tiny fraction of the overall high school athletes nationwide — have been the target of scrutiny over the past few years as the politicization of trans identities ramped up. Since 2020, thousands of anti-LGBTQ+ state laws have been introduced across the country, with a majority of states imposing some kind of restriction on trans and nonbinary students. Some of those laws ban books about trans people; others restrict students and teachers from using affirming pronouns; and dozens include bans on trans athletes. Reviews of these laws show that bans on athletic participation in particular almost always spill over into prohibiting other kinds of access for trans students, which has severe consequences on their mental health and has shown to be linked to higher rates of suicide, depression and anxiety, according to longstanding research. Republican lawmakers in Maine and beyond have framed trans participation in sports as an issue of safety, fairness, and women's rights. But transgender people and advocates say a handful of athletes in the U.S. has not historically caused safety or fairness concerns in sports. But it does impact the privacy, safety and mental health of a marginalized group of young people who already face discrimination, which is why they argue it is important for Maine to preserve trans students' rights in the face of political pressure. 'It's only because it's become a political hot potato in the last couple years that people are spending a lot more time focusing on it and inventing all these things around unfair advantage, people getting hurt or whatever, which are not true,' Gia Drew, executive director of EqualityMaine, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. 'Trans people are not the problem or the reason why we have economic insecurity or housing prices are high. Trans people are just trying to live their lives.' Before gender was added as a protected class under the Maine Human Rights Act in 2021, the Maine Principals Association had a policy requiring trans athletes to petition for a hearing to ensure that those participating in sports consistent with their gender identity would be fair and safe. Between 2013 and 2021, there were 56 such hearings, including four trans girls, according to public testimony the association submitted in 2023. All 56 cases were deemed safe by the MPA. 'There was never a complaint, because there is no reason to complain. It wasn't till in the last few years that the opposition have decided that this is some type of political thing to use to divide and conquer communities. Most of their arguments are not rooted in the experience of real kids, real transgender people and their classmates, or the science behind it all. – Gia Drew, executive director of Equality Maine 'There was never a complaint, because there is no reason to complain,' Drew said. 'It wasn't till in the last few years that the opposition have decided that this is some type of political thing to use to divide and conquer communities. Most of their arguments are not rooted in the experience of real kids, real transgender people and their classmates, or the science behind it all.' An investigation by the Office for Civil Rights under HHS that was announced on Feb. 21 and concluded four days later found that Maine had violated Title IX, the federal law banning sex-based discrimination. It included no interviews, data requests or negotiations but the agency notified the Maine Attorney General's office via emailed letter that the state's policy allowing trans girls to participate in girls' sports was in violation of federal law. With two other federal probes into Maine still pending, it is unclear what the exact consequences of the violation will be, but the state will have to either fight the decision in court, or comply by banning trans girls from playing in sports. Mills told Trump she would see him 'in court,' but later told reporters that the policy was 'worthy of debate.' Republican legislators have introduced at least two bills — LD 868 and LD 233 — attempting to restrict what teams trans athletes can participate on. These bills, like so many of their counterparts across the country, don't stop at athletics as they also restrict access to bathrooms and locker rooms for trans girls. During a press conference last week, Libby, Rep. Elizabeth Caruso of Caratunk, who sponsored LD 868, and Assistant House Minority Leader Katrina Smith of Palermo touted the proposals as a women's rights issue, arguing they are essential to protect girls from losing to or being harmed by trans girls. 'Girls are pitted against competitors in lopsided matches where basic biology stacks the odds against them, guaranteeing defeat and exposing them to real dangers, broken bones and smashed noses, all due to obvious differences in physical strength,' Smith said. This argument that trans girls have 'basic biological differences' that give them advantages over cisgender girls in both high school and professional athletics has been used by both Republicans and Democrats as a reason to keep trans girls out of girls sports. A Gallup poll from 2023 found a growing number of Americans (69%) believe trans athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that conform with their birth gender, compared with 62% in 2021. California Gov. Gavin Newsom also recently said allowing trans girls on girls teams was 'deeply unfair.' Horwitz, the former Bowdoin athlete, said the idea that being trans makes an athlete 'inherently a threat to sports' comes from people 'not seeing trans girls and trans women as women.' Sue Campbell, the executive director of LGBTQ+ youth advocacy group Out Maine, and others argue that the decisions concerning high school athletics and trans teenagers should not be a political issue. 'Politicians aren't medical providers. They aren't people who are involved heavily in athletics, and yet, here they are trying to make these decisions that then everybody has to live by,' Campbell said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX While scientific research is not conclusive about the inherent strength, speed and power of transgender girls compared to cisgender girls, a 2024 study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine comparing athletes, funded by the International Olympic Committee, showed that trans athletes who are taking hormones may actually be at a disadvantage. Another comprehensive review commissioned by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport in 2022 backed these findings, showing that there are too many variables that lead to athletic prowess to be able to say that trans girls are stronger and have inherent advantages over cis girls or women. 'I think there's always going to be all sorts of biological advantages, regardless if you're trans or not. How you were born, how you were raised, how much healthy food you had, how much training and coaching your parents were able to afford — all those things give different people different advantages,' said Drew from Equality Maine, who was one of the nation's first trans high school coaches. 'Being trans is not an inherent advantage in anything.' Parents and students who support Caruso's bill told Maine Morning Star that they did not view their position as opposing trans girls, who they said could participate on coed teams and use gender neutral restrooms. The bill is 'not an attempt to attack them or be hateful toward them, it's just an attempt toward fairness,' said Fairfield resident Zoe Hutchins, who attends Lawrence High School and plays on a team that recently competed against the athlete Libby posted about. 'I want them to be able to compete, especially because competition, it's been a huge part of my whole life, and it's just it gives you so much community and joy, and that's not something that I want to take away from anybody,' Hutchins said. 'But competition has to be found through other avenues … .' These bills are part of a nationally coordinated attack on trans rights. Since 2020, at least 27 states have laws restricting trans athletes from participating in school sports, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks anti-LGBTQ+ legislation nationwide. Other laws include restrictions banning trans students from bathrooms and locker rooms aligning with their gender identities. Maine was found guilty of violating Title IX. What does that mean, and what happens next? 'Sports is not the only place that they wish to suppress — or rather in which they wish to bless the exclusion of — transgender students,' said Brian Dittmeier, director of public policy from GLSEN, a national LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. 'Athletics is just one facet of the broader attack on transgender students, which in itself, is one facet of a broader attack on inclusive learning in the first place.' After Trump took office, national protections for trans and nonbinary people were stripped away almost immediately. Title IX was rolled back to a previous version, without explicit protections for gender identity. Through executive orders banning gender affirming care, directing investigations by federal agencies into several states with trans-supportive policies, and most recently, in his joint address to Congress, Trump highlighted his anti-trans efforts. 'The erasure of transgender people in the eyes of the federal government is real, and it's terrifying to communities across the country, including here in Maine,' Drew said. 'They're doing their best to try to remove transgender people from public life, from being students playing sports, from going to public school, from existing.' Such policies contribute to higher rates of suicidal thoughts reported by LGBTQ+ young people, according to The Trevor Project, whose national surveys have found trans and nonbinary students at elevated risks due to the politicization of their identities. 'Lawmakers must understand the very real impacts of anti LGBTQ+ laws, whether these laws are related to sports or schools or health care or anything else. Anti-LGBTQ+ laws and the harmful rhetoric surrounding them very seriously take a toll on LGBTQ+ young people's mental health,' said Ronitha Nath, vice president of research at The Trevor Project. 'Much of what is being discussed by politicians is, you know, unfortunately, based on stereotypes and misinformation about what it means to be transgender.' This misinformation can lead to unwanted scrutiny by adults on all high school athletes, which has broad impacts, reaching cis students as well, Dittmeier from GLSEN said. Last year, a cisgender athlete in Utah was wrongfully identified as trans by a school board member on social media, sparking a slew of negative comments toward the teenage athlete, much like Libby's post. Some proposals have called for invasive testing or procedures. A Texas bill would subject all students who are participating in school athletics to chromosomal testing. This adult scrutiny of high school students, Dittmeier said, is 'a huge invasion of privacy.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
More than one in three young LGBTQ Mainers considered suicide, new report says
A Portland school system bus heads down Congress Street during the Portland Pride Parade on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star) Amid the heightened focus, both in Maine and nationally, on transgender students' participation in athletics, a vast majority of LGBTQ+ young people have reported feeling bullied and discriminated against. That's according to a new report by the Trevor Project, a national LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, which conducts yearly surveys asking gay, lesbian, transgender and nonbinary people aged 13 to 24 about their mental health, perception about politics and general well-being. The most recent survey released Wednesday focused on state-by-state responses collected between September and December 2023, capturing the experiences of more than 18,000 LGBTQ+ young people across the United States. The second state-by-state survey found that while LGBTQ+ youth nationwide and in Maine are at a higher risk of suicide, that is not inherent to their identities. 'This research really reinforces the reality that LGBTQ+ youth are placed at higher risk because of how they're mistreated and discriminated against by others,' said Ronita Nath, vice president of research at The Trevor Project. Almost 60% of the 116 LGBTQ+ youth in Maine responding to the Trevor Project survey said they had experienced discrimination, and 75% between ages 13-17 reported being bullied because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. For older youth, aged 18-24, 35% said they had also been bullied for similar reasons. Things have only gotten worse since the survey was conducted in late 2023, since research has shown that anti-trans laws are directly tied with an increase in suicide attempts, according to Nath. The Trevor Project's crisis services, which include a hotline, chat and text services, saw a 700% increase the day after President Donald Trump won the November 2024 election, and another spike the day of and after the inauguration in January 2025. Since then, Trump has signed several anti-trans executive orders and his administration has pressured states and governors to comply, specifically singling out Maine Gov. Janet Mills. During his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, Trump highlighted his actions banning trans athletes and putting an end to 'indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology.' The president also called on Congress to pass a bill to end gender affirming care, following an executive order he signed late January. This category of medical care is broadly supported by organizations including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. 'I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body,' Trump said during the joint address. This sort of rhetoric, as well as these policies, can have a devastating impact on LGBTQ+ youth, Nath said. 'Lawmakers must understand the very real impacts of anti LGBTQ+ laws, whether these laws are related to sports or schools or health care or anything else. Anti-LGBTQ+ laws and the harmful rhetoric surrounding them very seriously take a toll on LGBTQ+ young people's mental health,' Nath said. 'Much of what is being discussed by politicians is, you know, unfortunately, based in stereotypes and misinformation about what it means to be transgender,' she said. The effects of LGBTQ+ students experiencing discrimination based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression is often depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts, according to the report. That is evident from the 2024 survey results, wherein more than 70% respondents said they experienced anxiety, and 50% reported symptoms linked to depression. Thirty eight percent of LGBTQ+ young people in Maine seriously considered suicide in the past year. That number was 42% for trans and nonbinary youth. A smaller percentage — 13% of overall LGBTQ+ and 18% of trans and nonbinary young people — in Maine attempted suicide in the past year. That's low compared to other parts of the country, which the study attributes to the protections Maine established for LGBTQ+ youth. When students feel supported in their homes, schools and communities, they are much less likely to consider or attempt self-harm, according to the Trevor Project's other national surveys. In 2024, LGBTQ+ young people viewed Maine communities as largely supportive, with 81% of LGBTQ+ young people (and 78% trans people) in Maine saying their communities were accepting. About 43% viewed their homes as affirming, and about 36% said the same about their schools. Only a small group — 18% overall and 20% trans and nonbinary respondents — said they or their families considered leaving Maine for another state because of LGBTQ+ politics and laws, which is much lower than many other states. That could be because Maine did not have any laws targeting these people at the time the survey was conducted, Nath said. A majority of Maine respondents said respecting their identities, affirming their pronouns and opposing politicians who advocate against LGBTQ+ people are some of the best ways to show support. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Maine DOE pushes back on Republicans' call to end gender support in schools
Participants in the Portland Pride Parade on Congress Street on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star) The Maine Department of Education will continue adhering to state laws that ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity amid a nationwide crackdown on equity practices and pushback from Maine Republicans. President Donald Trump has long opposed diversity, equity and inclusion in education, and after taking office on Jan. 2 issued several executive orders to dismantle initiatives that bolster the rights of trans, nonbinary and gender fluid students, as well as equitable curriculum that focuses on accurate history. Among the provisions of the gender order, it requires federal agencies and employees to recognize only two sexes, reject 'gender ideology' that allows people to identify with their gender identity rather than sex assigned at birth, and cuts federal funding to agencies that recognize gender identity separate from biological sex. These actions align with bans on books and equity-driven education signed into law in several Republican-led states. Maine, however, has largely remained steady in its commitment to equity in education by protecting rights of LGBTQ+ students through the Maine Human Rights Act, and prioritizing African American and Wabanaki studies. In a notice sent last week, the Maine DOE clarified that Trump's order, titled 'Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,' applies only to federal agencies and 'does not inhibit the force of Maine law or locally-adopted school board policies.' The department also emphasized protected classes under the Maine Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination on the basis of race, color, ancestry, national origin, sex, sexual orientation (which includes gender identity and expression), physical or mental disability and religion. On Wednesday, 29 Maine House Republicans sent a letter responding to the guidance, calling on the department to 'face reality and walk back its ill-advised guidance to Maine schools on harmful Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and gender ideology initiatives.' Failure to do so could result in school funding losses and federal lawsuits, the letter warned. 'We strongly support these important steps to protect our children, preserve fairness, maintain the integrity of sex-based distinctions, and renew the focus on education and not indoctrination,' the lawmakers continued. 'These Executive Orders are crucial in ensuring that the well-being of our children is safeguarded from policies that seek to divide, sow discontent, and contradict biological reality.' Chloe Teboe, spokesperson for the Maine DOE, said it is not accurate for Republicans to suggest that the department has advised schools to disregard the president's orders. 'The role of the Maine DOE is to provide guidance to school administrative units about the scope of federal directives and any applicable state laws,' she said. 'In its priority notice, the Maine DOE simply stated the fact that the President's Executive Order applies to federal government agencies — and that applicable Maine state law in this case is the Maine Human Rights Act, which Maine schools — like all Maine people — must abide by.' Since Maine is a local control state, school boards usually have the autonomy to determine local policy as long as it is consistent with state law. The department's website offers research and resources for schools to support LGBTQ+ students. On Wednesday, Trump signed another sweeping executive order that aims to bar federal funding for schools that teach accurate lessons about history and social studies, calling it 'discriminatory equity ideology.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What do Trump's executive orders mean for LGBTQ+ Mainers?
Participants in the Portland Pride Parade head down Congress Street. June 15, 2024 on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star) On the first day of President Donald Trump's second term, he used his executive power to remove protections for LGBTQ+ people, including a declaration that the federal government would not recognize trans and nonbinary people. 'It's really turning back the clock on decades of sex discrimination protections,' said Hannah Hussey, attorney for GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, otherwise known as GLAD Law. 'This is really an attempt to regulate and control people's lives.' However, Hussey explained, 'An executive order can't just erase state law. An executive order also can't undo a federal statute, and it can't change how courts have interpreted the federal statute.' Many of Trump's executive actions are expected to face legal challenges. His order to end birthright citizenship already has. If his orders are eventually upheld, the country is likely to see a piecemeal landscape where protections fall to the states, much like with abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade ended federal protections, according to Hussey and other legal experts. Federal power wins out over state authority in some cases, such as the issuance of federal documents like passports. Federal spending power could also be wielded in an attempt to try to force state compliance. Health care providers in Maine already saw that during the last Trump presidency, when he essentially barred providers that rely on federal funding from so much as mentioning abortion care to patients. Legal minds and leaders of LGBTQ+ organizations in Maine cautioned that there remain many unknowns about how these executive actions, and likely others forthcoming, will settle. GLAD Law is prepared to defend equal protection under the law without exception, Hussey said. Local leaders have been preparing since before the November election to shore up LGBTQ+ protections in Maine law, which already offers some of the strongest in the country. 'Whatever the president says doesn't change who you are as a person or your identity,' said Gia Drew, executive director of EqualityMaine, the oldest and largest LGBTQ+ statewide organization. 'And, we're going to do everything possible to make sure to cushion any blow that comes our way.' The authority to issue executive orders falls under Article Two of the U.S. Constitution, so the president's executive orders can't contradict the Constitution or federal statute, said Dmitry Bam, who teaches in the fields of constitutional law and the judiciary at the University of Maine School of Law. Trump orders withdrawal from Paris climate agreement, erases actions on LGBTQ+ equality 'The theory behind the orders is that either there's an area that Congress has left unregulated, so the president is using his inherent authority to fill in those gaps, or areas that are inherently assigned to the president,' Bam said. One example is federal documents, such as passports, Bam said. The U.S. State Department has already frozen applications for passports with 'X' sex markers and changes to gender identity on existing passports in response to Trump's executive order declaring the federal government would only 'recognize two sexes,' according to an internal cable obtained by the Guardian. A White House official told a reporter for NOTUS that the order won't impact passports that have already been issued and doesn't invalidate current passports but would impact those documents when they need to be renewed. Maine offers a third gender option, 'X,' on state forms, and the executive order does not override that state-level option. Drew with EqualityMaine said she's been fielding questions about whether having an 'X' gender marker on federal or state IDs could put people in harm's way. 'I'm not sure,' Drew said. 'Those are things that we don't have complete answers to for people.' Another early action in Trump's presidency was withdrawing an executive order issued by former President Joe Biden that directed federal agencies to apply the conclusion of the Bostock v. Clayton County U.S. Supreme Court ruling to all laws that prohibit sex discrimination. That 2020 ruling concluded that discrimination against someone because they are LGBTQ+ is sex discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. During the end of Trump's first term, his administration claimed the ruling didn't apply to Title IX, a landmark federal civil rights law on education, but Biden had reversed that guidance. Bam, Hussey and other law experts expect many of the executive orders to be challenged in court, and perhaps make their way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. 'More and more, the Court will be deciding these really controversial political issues that don't necessarily have a clear cut answer, or even some where we thought there was a clear cut answer,' Bam said. In most cases, the executive orders will likely take a while to implement. For example, the order declaring there are 'two sexes' which Hussey called broad and in many ways without clear instruction, has myriad downstream impacts. The order directs federal agencies to enforce laws governing 'sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations' using definitions for 'man' and 'woman' based on whether a person 'at conception' belongs to the sex that 'produces the large reproductive cell' or 'produces the small reproductive cell.' The order also includes a broad declaration to 'end the federal funding of gender ideology' but doesn't provide instruction for how to accomplish that. While Trump can in many ways regulate what federal agencies do, executive orders don't limit state power over their work that is separate from federal agencies. 'That's the value of federalism,' Bam said. 'Some state might say, 'You know what, we are happy with just the federal protections. We don't want to go any broader than that. And some state might say, we want to protect other groups and the states can do that.'' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Maine offers greater protections than federal law when it comes to anti-discrimination and gender-affirming health care. For example, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment on a number of characteristics such as race, national origin and sex. The Maine Human Rights Act also prohibits discrimination based on the characteristics in Title VII but also includes more categories, including sexual orientation. Individual municipalities may go even farther with added protections. 'Folks in Maine should know that state laws cover many areas of concern for LGBTQ people and their families, and an executive order can't just erase state law, ' Hussey with GLAD Law said. In addition to the anti-discrimination laws that cover education, jobs, housing, and access to services, among other parts of life, Hussey pointed to state protections for gender-affirming care, as well as the 'shield law' passed last year to protect providers of such health care from other state bans. Drew said EqualityMaine and other LGBTQ+ organizations are eyeing ways to expand the protections in that law, specifically around patient, provider and pharmacy data privacy. 'I know they're more organized than they were eight years ago,' Drew said of the Trump administration. 'But we are more prepared now too, because they told us what they were going to do and we believed them.' What does it mean to live in blue Maine under Trump 2.0? Medicaid, a federal-state health insurance program for low-income people, covers gender-affirming care in some states, including Maine. Drew is expecting federal money for such health care to be restricted, so another focus of EqualityMaine is ensuring the state has available funds to cover any of those losses. The state is currently trying to fix an immediate Medicaid shortfall and will be debating a longer-term fix in the biennial budget. When considering possible changes to gender-affirming care, Aspen Ruhlin, community engagement manager at the Mabel Wadsworth Center in Bangor, said it is important people understand what gender-affirming care includes. While gender-affirming care is often discussed in the ways it is used to help transgender people, Ruhlin pointed to research that found this type of health care is most often used by cisgender people, meaning people whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth. Gender-affirming care includes hormone replacement therapy for menopause, breast reconstruction after mastectomies, penile implants after testicular cancer, among other procedures. Ruhlin also pointed out that only recognizing 'two sexes' discounts people who are intersex, meaning people who are born with several sex characteristics, such as primary sex glands or chromosome patterns. 'There is a wide range of human experience, and that is true when it comes to talking about sex,' Ruhlin said. Overall, Ruhlin said it is important for Mainers to know their rights in the wake of the executive orders. Mabel Wadsworth has client advocates who, among other things, help transgender people navigate barriers to accessing the care they need, which includes things such as legal name changes. 'It's a lot easier to violate someone's rights if they don't know what rights they have,' Ruhlin said. While the executive orders don't immediately change most policies, Hussey with GLAD Law said they are 'certainly intended to cause chaos and confusion and fear.' The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people, saw a 33% increase in crisis line volume on Inauguration Day, which Drew said reinforced what she's been hearing anecdotally from LGBTQ+ people in Maine. 'I've been hearing from folks, especially older LGBTQ people, who are like, 'Oh, we've fought this. We'll fight this again. We're going to get through this,'' Drew said. 'Yes, that's true. We have fought for equality for decades, but this is different. It's different when we've been given rights, the freedom to be ourselves in so many places, and now have them be taken away.' While Drew said EqualityMaine and its network both state-wide and nationally are preparing for legal battles, she also said community support is vital, including as a means to ensure everyone has accurate information. 'I think what the president and his supporters want is us to be scared, freaking out, running in every direction,' Drew said. 'It's really important to take a breath, step back.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What do Trump's executive orders mean for LGBTQ+ Mainers?
Participants in the Portland Pride Parade head down Congress Street. June 15, 2024 on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Jim Neuger/ Maine Morning Star) On the first day of President Donald Trump's second term, he used his executive power to remove protections for LGBTQ+ people, including a declaration that the federal government would not recognize trans and nonbinary people. 'It's really turning back the clock on decades of sex discrimination protections,' said Hannah Hussey, attorney for GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, otherwise known as GLAD Law. 'This is really an attempt to regulate and control people's lives.' However, Hussey explained, 'An executive order can't just erase state law. An executive order also can't undo a federal statute, and it can't change how courts have interpreted the federal statute.' Many of Trump's executive actions are expected to face legal challenges. His order to end birthright citizenship already has. If his orders are eventually upheld, the country is likely to see a piecemeal landscape where protections fall to the states, much like with abortion after the overturn of Roe v. Wade ended federal protections, according to Hussey and other legal experts. Federal power wins out over state authority in some cases, such as the issuance of federal documents like passports. Federal spending power could also be wielded in an attempt to try to force state compliance. Health care providers in Maine already saw that during the last Trump presidency, when he essentially barred providers that rely on federal funding from so much as mentioning abortion care to patients. Legal minds and leaders of LGBTQ+ organizations in Maine cautioned that there remain many unknowns about how these executive actions, and likely others forthcoming, will settle. GLAD Law is prepared to defend equal protection under the law without exception, Hussey said. Local leaders have been preparing since before the November election to shore up LGBTQ+ protections in Maine law, which already offers some of the strongest in the country. 'Whatever the president says doesn't change who you are as a person or your identity,' said Gia Drew, executive director of EqualityMaine, the oldest and largest LGBTQ+ statewide organization. 'And, we're going to do everything possible to make sure to cushion any blow that comes our way.' The authority to issue executive orders falls under Article Two of the U.S. Constitution, so the president's executive orders can't contradict the Constitution or federal statute, said Dmitry Bam, who teaches in the fields of constitutional law and the judiciary at the University of Maine School of Law. Trump orders withdrawal from Paris climate agreement, erases actions on LGBTQ+ equality 'The theory behind the orders is that either there's an area that Congress has left unregulated, so the president is using his inherent authority to fill in those gaps, or areas that are inherently assigned to the president,' Bam said. One example is federal documents, such as passports, Bam said. The U.S. State Department has already frozen applications for passports with 'X' sex markers and changes to gender identity on existing passports in response to Trump's executive order declaring the federal government would only 'recognize two sexes,' according to an internal cable obtained by the Guardian. A White House official told a reporter for NOTUS that the order won't impact passports that have already been issued and doesn't invalidate current passports but would impact those documents when they need to be renewed. Maine offers a third gender option, 'X,' on state forms, and the executive order does not override that state-level option. Drew with EqualityMaine said she's been fielding questions about whether having an 'X' gender marker on federal or state IDs could put people in harm's way. 'I'm not sure,' Drew said. 'Those are things that we don't have complete answers to for people.' Another early action in Trump's presidency was withdrawing an executive order issued by former President Joe Biden that directed federal agencies to apply the conclusion of the Bostock v. Clayton County U.S. Supreme Court ruling to all laws that prohibit sex discrimination. That 2020 ruling concluded that discrimination against someone because they are LGBTQ+ is sex discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. During the end of Trump's first term, his administration claimed the ruling didn't apply to Title IX, a landmark federal civil rights law on education, but Biden had reversed that guidance. Bam, Hussey and other law experts expect many of the executive orders to be challenged in court, and perhaps make their way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. 'More and more, the Court will be deciding these really controversial political issues that don't necessarily have a clear cut answer, or even some where we thought there was a clear cut answer,' Bam said. In most cases, the executive orders will likely take a while to implement. For example, the order declaring there are 'two sexes' which Hussey called broad and in many ways without clear instruction, has myriad downstream impacts. The order directs federal agencies to enforce laws governing 'sex-based rights, protections, opportunities, and accommodations' using definitions for 'man' and 'woman' based on whether a person 'at conception' belongs to the sex that 'produces the large reproductive cell' or 'produces the small reproductive cell.' The order also includes a broad declaration to 'end the federal funding of gender ideology' but doesn't provide instruction for how to accomplish that. While Trump can in many ways regulate what federal agencies do, executive orders don't limit state power over their work that is separate from federal agencies. 'That's the value of federalism,' Bam said. 'Some state might say, 'You know what, we are happy with just the federal protections. We don't want to go any broader than that. And some state might say, we want to protect other groups and the states can do that.'' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Maine offers greater protections than federal law when it comes to anti-discrimination and gender-affirming health care. For example, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment on a number of characteristics such as race, national origin and sex. The Maine Human Rights Act also prohibits discrimination based on the characteristics in Title VII but also includes more categories, including sexual orientation. Individual municipalities may go even farther with added protections. 'Folks in Maine should know that state laws cover many areas of concern for LGBTQ people and their families, and an executive order can't just erase state law, ' Hussey with GLAD Law said. In addition to the anti-discrimination laws that cover education, jobs, housing, and access to services, among other parts of life, Hussey pointed to state protections for gender-affirming care, as well as the 'shield law' passed last year to protect providers of such health care from other state bans. Drew said EqualityMaine and other LGBTQ+ organizations are eyeing ways to expand the protections in that law, specifically around patient, provider and pharmacy data privacy. 'I know they're more organized than they were eight years ago,' Drew said of the Trump administration. 'But we are more prepared now too, because they told us what they were going to do and we believed them.' What does it mean to live in blue Maine under Trump 2.0? Medicaid, a federal-state health insurance program for low-income people, covers gender-affirming care in some states, including Maine. Drew is expecting federal money for such health care to be restricted, so another focus of EqualityMaine is ensuring the state has available funds to cover any of those losses. The state is currently trying to fix an immediate Medicaid shortfall and will be debating a longer-term fix in the biennial budget. When considering possible changes to gender-affirming care, Aspen Ruhlin, community engagement manager at the Mabel Wadsworth Center in Bangor, said it is important people understand what gender-affirming care includes. While gender-affirming care is often discussed in the ways it is used to help transgender people, Ruhlin pointed to research that found this type of health care is most often used by cisgender people, meaning people whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth. Gender-affirming care includes hormone replacement therapy for menopause, breast reconstruction after mastectomies, penile implants after testicular cancer, among other procedures. Ruhlin also pointed out that only recognizing 'two sexes' discounts people who are intersex, meaning people who are born with several sex characteristics, such as primary sex glands or chromosome patterns. 'There is a wide range of human experience, and that is true when it comes to talking about sex,' Ruhlin said. Overall, Ruhlin said it is important for Mainers to know their rights in the wake of the executive orders. Mabel Wadsworth has client advocates who, among other things, help transgender people navigate barriers to accessing the care they need, which includes things such as legal name changes. 'It's a lot easier to violate someone's rights if they don't know what rights they have,' Ruhlin said. While the executive orders don't immediately change most policies, Hussey with GLAD Law said they are 'certainly intended to cause chaos and confusion and fear.' The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ+ young people, saw a 33% increase in crisis line volume on Inauguration Day, which Drew said reinforced what she's been hearing anecdotally from LGBTQ+ people in Maine. 'I've been hearing from folks, especially older LGBTQ people, who are like, 'Oh, we've fought this. We'll fight this again. We're going to get through this,'' Drew said. 'Yes, that's true. We have fought for equality for decades, but this is different. It's different when we've been given rights, the freedom to be ourselves in so many places, and now have them be taken away.' While Drew said EqualityMaine and its network both state-wide and nationally are preparing for legal battles, she also said community support is vital, including as a means to ensure everyone has accurate information. 'I think what the president and his supporters want is us to be scared, freaking out, running in every direction,' Drew said. 'It's really important to take a breath, step back.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
