It has been nearly three months since Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) was censured by her Democratic colleagues over a social media post in which she criticized her state for refusing to comply with federal policies prohibiting trans-identifying male athletes from competing in girls’ sports.
During this time, Libby effectively has been barred from doing her job. She is unable to speak on the House floor or vote on the various legislative matters before the chamber — unless she apologizes for her “wrongthink.”
This also means Libby’s constituents — the people who elected her to represent them — have been stripped of their representation in Maine’s House of Representatives.
In an exclusive interview with IW Features, Libby said there is a lawful, constitutional way to remove a sitting legislator from office — one that also ensures Maine’s voters aren’t disenfranchised. That process is called impeachment, but it requires a two-thirds majority in Maine’s Senate — a statistical impossibility since Maine’s Democrats control the upper chamber by just five seats.
But through their censure, Maine’s Democrats effectively have accomplished the same result, Libby said. “I can’t vote or speak,” she explained. “[My constituents] have been completely disenfranchised.”
At issue in the censure is a Facebook post Libby made in February highlighting how a trans-identifying male student at Greely High School in Cumberland, Maine, won first place this year in girls’ pole vault during the Maine State Class B Championship. Libby included two images of the student, whom she identified as “Katie,” and pointed out that he competed in the boys’ pole vault events the year prior, earning fifth place. But after “transitioning” and switching to the girls’ track and field team, “Katie” suddenly rocketed to first place, jumping a full eight inches higher than the female athlete who came in second.
Libby told IW Features she made the post because she was “struck by how unfair it was for those women, that they had worked so hard for so many years and had become so accomplished only to be defeated by a biological male.”
“I posted the photos to highlight what was going on in Maine in the wake of [President Donald Trump’s executive order banning trans-identified male athletes from women’s sports]. I knew that not just Mainers, but folks all across the country. felt the same as me — that this was not fair,” she said, noting the information and pictures of the trans-identified male student already had been publicly reported.
In response, Maine Democrats accused Libby of endangering the trans-identified male student. Their censure resolution states, “It is a basic tenet of politics and good moral character that children should not be targeted by adult politicians, especially when that targeting could result in serious harm.” The resolution, which passed on a 75-70 vote, went on to demand that Libby “accept full responsibility for the incident and publicly apologize to the House and to the people of the state of Maine.”
Before the censure vote was cast, Libby said she met with Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau (D-Biddeford), who informed her the public apology Democrats were demanding would need to be “approved” by his office. “That translates to ‘written by the Speaker,’ essentially,” Libby told IW Features.
“At a certain point, I just had enough and told him the meeting was over, and he would go down as the speaker who silenced a woman for speaking up for girls,” Libby recalled.
And regardless, Libby said a public apology was out of the question.
“It would be an apology for speaking up on behalf of Maine women and girls,” she said. “And the message I’ve heard loudly and clearly since all of this has occurred is that these girls have felt very betrayed, and alone, and unsure of what to do in a situation where they’ve worked so hard. The authorities in their life are not standing up for them. So to apologize would be a betrayal.”
With Maine’s young women in mind, Libby walked onto the House floor to deliver her response to the Democrats’ censure resolution. Unfortunately, she managed to read less than 10% of the speech she had prepared.
“[The Democrats] kept breaking into my speech and calling a point of order, claiming my comments were not germane exactly to the censure,” Libby explained. “Usually, there’s a fair amount of latitude to allow people to make their points, but for whatever reason it seemed like it was probably prearranged that they were not going to allow me to speak no matter what I said, unless it directly related to my [Facebook] post and only my post.”
That was the last time Libby has been allowed to speak on the chamber’s floor.
But if Maine Democrats thought they could silence Libby on the issue of sex-exclusive sports and spaces for women, they were wrong.
In fact, Libby is taking this fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In a filing with the justices last month, Libby’s lawyers asked the high court to ensure her votes are counted in the next legislative session, accusing Fecteau and other Maine Democrats of not only violating her right to free speech, but her constituents’ right to legislative representation as well.
“[The] refusal to count a duly elected legislator’s vote is unprecedented in Maine. Only three other legislators have been censured in Maine’s 200-year history; no other legislator has had his or her vote not counted as punishment, let alone for the rest of his or her elected term,” the filing reads.
The attorneys general of 15 states signed onto an amicus brief in support of Libby’s request, arguing Maine Democrats’ actions against her are “a flagrant violation of our constitutional right to equal representation.”
“I’m certainly looking forward to having this case heard,” Libby told IW Features. “It’s tremendously important and there’s a lot at stake, not just for our state but for our country, as we look at the ramifications for free speech and whether a majority can silence a member of the minority.”
Libby said she also knows the narrower issue that initially triggered this case — whether women have the right to sex-exclusive sports teams and spaces — is a fight worth having.
“I’ve heard from many constituents — the vast majority have been to encourage me that I’m speaking on their behalf and that they support me and to ask me to continue fighting,” she said.
These voters understand there are broader implications to Libby’s case as well. The fact is that Maine Democrats have been deliberately ignoring and legislating against the interests of Maine’s citizens for years, Libby said. Their censure of her is just the latest indication of how far they are willing to go to shut down public dissent.
“This current Democratic majority and governor for many years now refuse to implement the will of Maine people and have pushed an agenda that Mainers do not agree with. Biological males in women’s sports is not the only issue where they are ignoring the will of Maine’s people — it’s just the one that has exploded right now,” she said. “And Mainers are tired of having their voices ignored.”
