The Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights found this spring that the state of Maine “violated federal Title IX anti-discrimination law after Katie Spencer, a young transgender pole vaulter, won a state championship.” The department threatened Maine’s federal funding “if it doesn’t ‘swiftly and completely’ reverse its policies.” You may recall the outcry following Spencer’s win that culminated in a “televised spat” between Maine’s Democrat Governor, Janet Mills, and President Trump during a governors’ meeting at the White House in February. Mills promised to see the president “in court” when he threatened to pull Maine’s federal funding.
Well connected with this controversy, the Maine House censured Representative Laurel Libby for a Facebook post she made in support of the female pole vaulters defeated by Spencer. Libby’s post contrasted how the male student just one year previously had placed 5th in the boy’ pole vault, but jumped six inches higher than his next female competitor. Well, the Democrat House Speaker and majority leader demanded she remove the post, and when she failed to do so, passed a motion along party lines to censure her. Libby was forbidden to speak on the House floor or vote on any legislation until she made an apology, which she rightly refused to do.
Instead, Libby sued the Speaker for violating her First Amendment free speech rights, but all the district judges in Maine recused themselves from her case, a Biden-appointed U.S. District Court Judge in Rhode Island ruled against her, and so did the First Circuit Court of Appeals. She was forced to seek relief from the U.S. Supreme Court and on May 20, our nation’s highest court granted Libby’s request, restoring her right to vote in the Maine House, at least for now.
Say a prayer of thanks for warriors like Representative Libby, who are willing to take on the progressive powers that run their states. We need the Lord to raise an army of them over the next three years as these legal and political battles are fought!
This post originally appeared at https://phyllisschlafly.com/family/education/transgender-sports-showdown-in-maine/