Maine’s state legislature voted on her biannual budget on Thursday night, but the session was delayed by a prolonged debate about the inclusion of transgender athletes and the censorship of the Republican representative Laurel Libby.
Libby, who was censored by the democratic majority and Democratic president of Maine, Ryan Fecteau, for a position on social networks that identified a trans athlete of minors, proposed several amendments to the state budget through a escape in state legislative policy.
Libby presented 10 amendments from floor to the budget on Tuesday before the deadline to do so, which is not avoided by censorship. Then, Libby was allowed to speak and present those amendments during Thursday’s session. One of those amendments was not related to the budget, but it was a proposal to keep trans athletes out of girls’ sports.
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However, when Libby spoke to present their amendments, multiple Democrats protested, instigating a debate with Republican representatives.
“During that four -minute presentation process, it ended up being a debate on the floor … between the Republicans and the Democrats regarding my censorship. Therefore, there was essentially a second vote regarding censorship, reaffirming the commitment of the Democrats to silence my voice and my vote,” Libby said.
Maine’s house at dawn, on January 3, 2024, in Augusta, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
In addition to Libby’s proposal to ban trans athletes from girls sports, he proposed multiple budget invoices that would have reduced taxes and government spending. These proposals included a repeal of a solar energy tax, a repeal of Free Community College and a repeal of a recent 1%payroll tax.
But Libby amendments were not even considered, and the Democrats moved so that the amendments postponed indefinitely.
Trump Admin responds to Maine’s reluctance to ban trans athletes from sports girls
“I could not talk to them, advocate for them and press for the benefit they would bring to the people of Maine,” Libby said.
Ultimately, the budget he approved did not include any republican contribution. The House of Representatives approved the $ 11.3 billion expenses plan for a 74-67 vote along the party lines. The Senate approved it 18-17 with two Democrats who join the Republicans in opposition.
Libby was censored on February 25 due to a publication of social networks that identified a minor by name with a photo. Libby’s post pointed out that a transgender athletic athlete had occupied first place in a pole jumping competition from Maine’s girls after the athlete competed when he was a child a year earlier.
“It is a notable double standard since there are public photos of this individual in many places, on social networks and even some published by his school. And, therefore, yes, this publication went viral, but this was a person who participated in a public event, which was publicly in a podium in a podium and accepted a championship medal that legitimately belonged to the girls in the second place,” Libby said previously Digital.
Libby filed a lawsuit against Fecteau and the employee of the House of Representatives, Robert Hunt, who seeks to restore his vote and speech rights.
Libby represents more than 9,000 components in the 90th district of the MAINE House of Representatives, and six of them have signed the claim as plaintiffs because censorship has prevented him from carrying out other legislative actions to meet these components.
“The actions of the speaker not only deprived me of their rights, but they deprived the thousands of constituents that I represent, and that is the broader image here; the fact that the speaker, in his eyes, would retaliate against me because he does not like what I have to say,” Libby told Pak Gazette Digital.
