(The Center Square) – Criticism of Maine law continues, and state Rep. Laurel Libby said she refuses to apologize following a censure from the Legislature for her social media post involving a boy playing in girls sports.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Libby said she won’t apologize for her Facebook post about a Maine state champion in the girls competition. She said the state law allowing boys to say they are girls – called gender identity – and play in girls sports is wrong.
“I have heard from a growing coalition of women from various perspectives who have all reached out with their support for women and girls,” the second-term Republican from Auburn in Androscoggin County said in remarks flanked by other Republican women.
Libby was censured by the Democratic-majority state House of Representatives because she posted a photo of the student last month and criticized Maine’s laws. Under legislative rules, Libby is barred from voting on bills or speaking on the House floor until she offers a public apology.
“Sharing images of kids online without their consent is a clear violation of the bond of trust and respect between citizens and their legislators,” House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, said in a statement. “There is a time and place for policy debates. That time and place will never be a social media post attacking a Maine student. Maine kids, and all Maine people, deserve better.”
But House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, called the 75-70 House vote a “sham censure” and accused Democrats of “bullying” the minority party.
The back-and-forth follows threats of legal action by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is threatening to sue Maine if the state does not stop allowing boys to participate in girls and women’s sports.
Bondi’s threat of litigation came less than a week after Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and President Donald Trump clashed at the White House over federal funding on the issue.
The U.S. Department of Education’s civil rights division is conducting a review of Maine’s Department of Education to determine if it is violating Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order that bans males of all ages from competing in girls and women’s sports competitions.
The federal agency is investigating a Maine school district after reports that school officials are allowing a male student to compete in girls’ categories, in violation of Trump’s executive order.
Meanwhile, state Republicans have filed a bill that would bar boys from competing in girls sports. It would also require public schools and colleges to designate bathrooms, changing rooms and dorms as male-only or female-only, with some exceptions.
