Maine Rep. Laurel Libby (R) had her speaking and voting rights restored on Wednesday after state Democrats silenced her over her stance on transgender-identifying athletes.
Libby’s speaking rights were restored five months after Democrats censured her for a social media post that identified a transgender-identifying male athlete who won a high school girls’ pole vault competition. The censure of Libby passed in a 75-70 vote in February, and she was no longer allowed to speak on the House floor unless she capitulated to the false religion of gender ideology by issuing a formal apology — which she refused to do.
Libby filed a lawsuit against Democrat Speaker of the Maine House Ryan Fecteau in response. In May, the Supreme Court granted her emergency application for relief, clearing the way for her to speak on the state House floor and vote on behalf of her constituents again while her lawsuit plays out in the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
Libby told Fox News Digital that she was unaware her speaking rights were going to be restored on Wednesday. She said she did not find out about the move until near the end of the session, when lawmakers were preparing to adjourn.
“Just before adjournment, House assistant majority leader Lori Gramlich proposed a resolution that upon adjourning, Libby’s full voting and speaking rights would be restored. The resolution passed by a vote of 115-16,” according to the report.
Libby said that “the majority of not just Mainers, but Americans do not agree with [Democrats’] extreme stance allowing biological males to participate in girls’ sports.”
“They know they’re losing on that issue, they know that they’re losing in the courts regarding my lawsuit that I filed… and so they caved because they know they’re losing and this is the best way for them to save face,” she said.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order called “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” to protect female student athletes from having “to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males.” The order also mandates each federal department to “review grants to education programs and, where appropriate, rescind funding to programs that fail to comply with the policy established in this order,” which protects women “as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
Following Trump’s order, Maine officials publicly said they would not comply, siding with transgender-identifying males over women and girls and citing state law allowing students to play on teams that match their “gender identity.” Then a transgender-identifying boy claimed the victory in the Maine Class B championship for the Greely High School girls’ track and field team in February.
As a result, Maine has been the subject of several federal investigations, and the Department of Justice has filed its own lawsuit against the state.
Some school districts have stood alongside Libby and against Gov. Janet Mills by passing their own localized resolutions to protect girls’ sports teams from the incursion of transgender-identifying males.
“There have also been three large-scale protests against the current policies in the state’s capital city, Augusta, since February,” according to Fox News.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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