Gov. Paul LePage is refusing to allow proposed rules clarifying the rights of LGBT students to move forward.
Supporters say the rules were needed after the Legislature amended the Maine Human Rights Act in 2005. They’ve since been proposed by the Maine Human Rights Commission and the Maine Department of Education.
The rulemaking began more than a decade ago but was suspended while a precedent-setting lawsuit involving a transgender elementary school student’s use of the girls’ bathroom wound its way through the courts.
Ultimately the Maine Supreme Court ruled on behalf of Nicole Maines and her family in 2013. In October the proposed rules were sent to the governor’s office for his approval.
“Not a lot of states have rules on this topic, but we did look at what exists in terms of guidance and rulemaking in other states,” says Amy Sneirson, executive director of the Maine Human Rights Commission.
Sneirson says her agency, with the Department of Education’s support, put a lot of work into the rules.
“Because we knew, given the Maines case and given the fact that there isn’t a lot of information out there to look at, that people would be watching, and that what we put out for proposed rulemaking would be looked at in Maine a lot and in other states as well,” she says.
Sneirson says the goal was to provide clarity about what is required of schools when it comes to LGBT students’ use of locker rooms and bathrooms, competition on sports teams and even the use of pronouns for certain students.
But after a couple of months, when it became clear that the governor would not sign off on them, Sneirson says the Commission went ahead and simply offered guidance to schools instead. But the guidance is just that. It cannot be enforced the way rules can.
“It frustrates me that the governor is essentially playing games when we have students who need these rules,” says Democratic Rep. Mattie Daughtry of Brunswick.
She says not having the rules in place is troubling.
“This is a population that needs to be protected and it frankly irks me to see this happening,” Daughtry says.
A longtime LGBT advocate, Daughtry says transgender teens have one of the highest rates of depression and suicide and should have all the resources they can get.
The governor’s press secretary, Adrienne Bennett, said in an email that LePage believes there is no requirement that the rules be changed. Instead, he points to the opinion of Chief Justice Leigh Saufley in the Maines case, who said the Legislature should address ambiguity in the statute.
As a gubernatorial candidate, LePage voiced his opposition to protecting the rights of transgender students. And in December he joined other Republicans in filing a brief in opposition to a transgender Virginia boy’s lawsuit over use of his school’s restroom.
