Maine is once again in the national spotlight – and not in a good way.
Just as Alabama’s Democratic Gov. George C. Wallace made headlines in June of 1963 for standing in the schoolhouse door to defy orders from a federal judge to desegregate the all-white University of Alabama, our own Democratic Gov. Janet Mills has invoked states’ rights to defy a federal civil rights law.
In his inaugural address in January of 1963, Wallace infamously vowed that Alabama would enforce “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” It was almost as if Wallace wanted to remind America that the Democrats have a shameful history as the party of slavery, secession, and segregation.
In a move eerily reminiscent of Wallace 62 years ago, our lame duck Gov. Mills is symbolically standing in Maine’s schoolhouse door to assert that our state statutes supersede a federal civil-rights law (Title IX) that protects female athletes from having to compete against and share locker rooms with mentally ill men and boys pretending to be women.
If Mills has her way, the modern Democrat Party – now in its death throes – will transition from the party of slavery and segregation to the party of transgender supremacy and the genital mutilation of minors.
Since Mills took office in 2018, Transgender Supremacy has become the new state religion in Maine’s public schools. Trans cultists require non-believers – women in particular – to change their ways, adjust their lives, nod their heads, and give up their right to safety and privacy, all to accommodate the demands of people who suffer from gender dysphoria.
Mills had her Sumter moment at the White House late last month, when she threw down the gauntlet and challenged President Trump to a courtroom duel to determine whether Maine’s state statutes supersede conflicting federal statutes with regard to so-called “transgender” athletes.
So far, California, Minnesota, and Massachusetts are the only other states to declare solidarity with Mills’ fledgling gender-bender Confederacy.
Predicting which side will prevail in the legal dispute between the federal Union and the trans Confederacy seems to me a no-brainer – but then, I’m not a lawyer, though I occasionally play one on the radio.
The Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution (Article VI, Clause 2) gives precedence to federal law where it conflicts with state laws, including state constitutions and regulations. Mills and her ethically-challenged AG Aaron Frey will almost certainly be chewed up and spit out by the Trump Justice Department.
In any case, the two state statutes on which Mills relies are exceedingly slender reeds on which to lean. Both are recent amendments to the Maine Human Rights Act, passed by party-line votes in the Legislature and signed into law by Mills in 2019 and 2021.
The 2019 amendment – the 11-page LD 1701, “An Act To Clarify Various Provisions of the Maine Human Rights Act” – redefined the term “gender identity” in a way that insults the intelligence of anyone with an IQ above room temperature. The Democrats’ repetitive, incoherent, circular definition is a word salad worthy of Kamala Harris:
“‘Gender identity’ means the gender-related identity, appearance, mannerisms or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, regardless of the individual’s assigned sex at birth.”
Duh.
That brazenly circular definition is akin to defining “institutional racism” as racism that’s institutional. Or telling us that Marx’s “dialectical materialism” is materialism that’s dialectical.
What’s more, the phrase about sex being assigned at birth has no basis whatsoever in reality. That verbiage is a crackpot, science-denying delusion lifted from the transgender cult’s catechism and incorporated into Maine statutes.
The other statute invoked by Mills isn’t much better at providing any sort of rational legal foundation for allowing men to compete in women’s athletic events.
LD 1688, “An Act To Improve Consistency in Terminology and within the Maine Human Rights Act” was sponsored by Senator Craig Hickman of Winthrop, who introduced himself to the Judiciary committee as “a former cross-gendered performance artist and substitute teacher.” It’s well worth the time it takes to read Hickman’s two pages of bizarre testimony, but here’s the bottom line: he never once hinted or suggested that enactment would allow student athletes to choose the team that most closely aligns with their so-called “gender identity.”
Likewise, none of the left-wing lobbyists who submitted written testimony – ACLU Maine, Equality Maine, Maine Human Rights Commission – made any mention of allowing “trans men” or “trans boys” to compete on girls’ athletic teams. Nowhere in the text of the 15-page bill is there a single reference to transgenderism or transgender students or transgender athletes – not even “between the lines.”
It’s only in retrospect that the trans cultists are now pointing to LD 1688 as the legal foundation for allowing men and boys to compete as girls.
But now, after throwing down the gauntlet at the White House last month, Mills appears to be waffling. At a Blaine House event on March 3rd, Mills suggested that the conflict between state law and federal law could be resolved by the Maine Legislature:
Sounds to me like she’s throwing in the towel. Unfortunately for her, the likelihood of the Democrat-dominated Legislature repealing either of the aforementioned amendments to the Maine Human Rights Act is slim to none. Certainly Speaker Ryan Fecteau can be counted on to keep his promise to never, ever compromise with Republicans on “civil rights, fundamental freedoms, and basic dignity.”
Looks to me like Gov. Millstone will go down with the ship.
Whatever the outcome, who could have imagined the state of Maine would become ground zero in a conflict between the Union and rebel confederate states?
Didn’t Maine send troops to put down the insurrectionists over a century and a half ago?
Joshua Chamberlain is surely turning over in his grave in Brunswick.
Lawrence Lockman of Bradley served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives, from 2012 to 2020. He is co-founder and president of the conservative non-profit Maine First Project.
