Maine Democrats are restoring the speaking rights of a Republican lawmaker who was censured for posting the name and photo of a transgender athlete on social media.
The state’s Democrat-led House of Representatives stripped Laurel Libby of her power to speak on the House floor and her ability to vote on legislation in February after she refused to apologize for the post. Ms. Libby said she was being asked to recant her views.
On Wednesday, in the final moments before the regular legislative session ended, House assistant majority leader Lori Gramlich introduced a resolution to restore Ms. Libby’s full voting and speaking rights.
The resolution “is not intended to absolve the representative’s actions,” Ms. Gramlich said on the House floor. “It only rescinds the restrictions on her voting and speaking privileges.” The resolution passed on a 115-16 vote.
“The Democrats caved,” Ms. Libby says in a video she released on X. “The Democrats caved because they know that they are losing. They are losing in the court of public opinion, they are losing in the literal court, and they have to save face by restoring my rights.”
The legislature is now adjourned until January so it will be months before Ms. Libby can exercise her restored rights.
In February, Ms. Libby posted a photo on X that identified a trans athlete who had won the state girls’ championship for pole vaulting. She posted a follow-up saying the student had competed in the competition the previous year as a boy and taken fifth place.
Ms. Libby said House Speaker Ryan Fecteau called her the next day and asked her to take the post down. She declined saying that no one from the athlete’s family had reached out to her about the post and that the athlete’s name had already been published in a newspaper report on the competition.
Mr. Fecteau subsequently introduced a censure resolution. It passed 75-70 on a party-line vote. Unlike most states where censure is a minor infraction, Maine strips important privileges from censured members.
Mr. Fecteau said the censure would be lifted if Ms. Libby simply apologized. She filed a federal lawsuit on March 11 to get the censure overturned, saying it left her constituents without a voice in the legislature. A U.S. district judge ruled against her on April 22 and an appeals court rejected her appeal.
Last month the U.S. Supreme Court said that Ms. Libby could not be barred from carrying out her voting duties while the lawsuit over the censure played out. Ms. Libby was allowed to make procedural motions but she wasn’t allowed to engage in debate under the injunction.
Last week, Ms. Libby tried to speak on the record to announce her votes on bills in spite of the censure. She argued that she was only barred from debating bills on the floor, not from speaking when none was under consideration. When she requested the right to speak, Mr. Fecteau denied her.
Ms. Libby plans to continue the suit which, in part, asks for her legal fees to be covered. “This is not over. This all began because I spoke up on behalf of Maine women and girls who are being discriminated against by our government, by our leaders who are denying them a safe, level, fair playing field and their rights have not been assured.”
Maine’s position on allowing transgender athletes to compete has gotten national attention. President Trump issued an executive order shortly after his inauguration requiring athletes to play on teams that coincide with the sex they were assigned at birth.
He and Maine Governor Janet Mills sparred verbally over the issue during a White House public event in February. Trump told her she should comply with the executive order; Ms. Mills replied that her state would “comply with state and federal law” and said she would “see you in court.”
“You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t,” Mr. Trump retorted.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
