EqualityMaine

Today, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced that a proposed referendum on transgender students' ability to fully participate in school has failed to qualify for the fall ballot after more than 12,500 petition signatures were invalidated due to a myriad of issues, including forged signatures, petition circulators failing to file valid affidavits with the secretary of state's office, duplicate signatures and signatories not matching any registered voters in their town's voting rolls.

As the convening organizations of the Campaign for Free and Fair Schools, we welcome this ruling, which upholds the integrity of Maine's elections and our system of direct democracy. It also makes it very unlikely that Mainers will be forced to vote on a ballot measure this fall that, if passed, would change long-standing protections in our Human Rights Act in order to strip rights away from trans and gender expansive youth and would open our schools up to increased bullying and potential lawsuits.

“The paid, out-of-state signature gatherers and the billionaire who paid to try to put this question on the ballot failed to follow the rules," David Farmer, campaign manager for the Campaign for Free and Fair Schools, said in a statement. "We believe that the appeals process and the reviews by the Secretary of State are working as the law intends. They are protecting the integrity of our elections.”

Today is Harvey Milk Day, and we honor and celebrate his fierce advocacy on behalf of our community. Harvey reached out to every community in every neighborhood, finding common ground and acceptance across races, sexualities, and religion. In 1977, Harvey was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States. His victory wasn’t just political. It was personal. To paraphrase the gay rights icon, “We are here. And we deserve to be seen.”

Our community also mourns the loss of Gerald Talbot, Maine’s first Black legislator and prominent civil rights leader. In 1977, he co-sponsored a bill with Larry Connolly to protect gay and le***an Mainers from discrimination under the Maine Human Rights Act — the first of its kind. When asked why he sponsored that legislation, he said, “There has to be a voice here in the legislature for those who have no voice.”

This week, we learned that another larger-than-life lawmaker, Barney Frank, passed away Tuesday evening in his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He was 86. The bombastic liberal Jewish gay Democrat was a wiz at finance and insider politics, and will be also remembered by many as the first out-LGBTQ+ member of Congress.

The Honorable Barb Wood, a board member of EqualityMaine and one of our founders, deeply appreciated Barney’s work as a lawmaker and recalls an energizing campaign speech he made while stumping for her as she was running for Portland City Council in 1988. Barb won that race later that year, and became the first out-LGBTQ+ elected official in Maine.

Growing up in Barney’s hometown of Newton, Massachusetts, our Executive Director Gia Drew saw and heard him on a regular basis. He inspired her interest in politics, including her historic run for the Maine Legislature in 2020 — the first campaign by an out trans person.

The Congressman was a complicated person and politician, and made enemies as fast as he made friends. His stances on LGBTQ+ rights — and immigration, climate justice, and more — were messy as well. While championing a federal non-discrimination bill that would have covered all LGBTQ+ people, Barney intentionally removed gender identity protections, hoping excluding trans equality would make the path to victory easier. It didn’t and the bill never passed — with or without trans rights. Sadly, in one of his last interviews, he suggested that supporting full transgender rights was a misguided political strategy.

Despite Barney’s imperfect activism, his visibility as an out LGBTQ+ person in Congress has been so impactful to the greater community. It gave us all permission to dream of a better future where our community gets a seat at the table to make important decisions. He serves as a reminder that the LGBTQ+ community is family, in all its messiness and imperfection. Most importantly, he reminds us that it’s better to do this work imperfectly than not at all, and to allow people in our community the space to learn, grow, and have different perspectives.

We’re all arriving at this movement from a variety of lived experiences and starting points, yet we need to be in solidarity in the face of the extreme challenges we face in today's hostile climate. It’s going to take all of us working together to achieve collective liberation, so when they do come for one of us, they come for all of us.