AUGUSTA, Maine — Democrats who run the Maine House of Representatives voted Tuesday to censure a Republican for posts that singled out a student and led to President Donald Trump threatening to ax funding if Maine keeps allowing transgender students in girls’ sports.
The effort to censure Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, came after she made social media posts that have since gone viral about a transgender student at Greely High School who won an indoor track and field title last week. Word made it to Trump, who mentioned Maine during a speech and then sparred Friday with Gov. Janet Mills during a White House event with other governors.
After concluding work on a short-term budget that still awaits final approval, the Democratic-led chamber passed the censure resolution Tuesday night in a 75-70 vote. Libby refused to apologize to the chamber for her actions, leading House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, to invoke a House rule stripping Libby of her speaking and voting privileges.
“I will not apologize for speaking up for Maine girls who are having their voices silenced and who do not have anyone speaking up for them,” Libby told reporters after the vote, vowing to keep that posture indefinitely.
The censure faulted Libby for picturing and identifying the student “in an effort to advance her political agenda.” House Majority Leader Matt Moonen, D-Portland, noted in a Tuesday floor speech that Libby refused Fecteau’s request to take down her initial social media post.
“She has irreparably broken the trust that has been placed in her as an elected official serving in this House of Representatives,” Moonen said. “This institution and all of Maine deserve better.”
Libby defended herself during Tuesday night’s debate in a speech that was often interrupted by Democratic points of order and ultimately shut down by Fecteau after she veered from directly discussing the censure and criticized the “woke left” for an attempt at censorship.
House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, spoke against the censure by saying the Legislature’s ethics code does not mention online posts that members make. Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, echoed Faulkingham’s points in explaining his vote against censuring Libby but added that her actions were “cruel, callous and reprehensible.”
Libby’s post prompted Trump’s threat to no longer give federal funding to the state if it keeps a Maine Principals’ Association policy allowing transgender students to compete in scholastic sports. Trump bashed Mills and said “we are the federal law,” while the Democratic governor told the president “we’ll see you in court.”
Trump issued an executive order earlier in February that seeks to bar transgender female athletes from competing by arguing that it violates the landmark Title IX law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding.
The Trump administration said later Friday it will conduct a Title IX investigation into Maine’s education department and the Cumberland school district attended by the student Libby singled out in her initial Facebook post that has since been shared more than 18,000 times.
Libby first won election to the House in 2020 and has been a prolific fundraiser while clashing at times with Republican leaders. She has appeared repeatedly on conservative media and refused to back down on posts on the student, whose school had increased security Monday.
In 2021, the Maine Principals’ Association allowed students to compete in athletics according to their identified gender. It does not track how many transgender students are competing in Maine sports. From 2013 to 2021, the association considered requests on a case-by-case basis, hearing from 56 students in that period. Only four were transgender girls.
A coalition of Maine public health and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups released a statement Tuesday that did not name Libby but criticized her for her posts “resulting in statewide and national harassment of a non-consenting minor.”
Before Libby, only three members had ever been censured by the House. All of them were for incidents in the State House. Reps. Michael Lemelin, R-Chelsea, and Shelley Rudnicki, R-Fairfield, were censured last year after claiming that the 2023 Lewiston mass shooting was God’s response to an abortion law that took effect the same day as the rampage.
The Libby censure was posted on the Legislature’s website Tuesday evening, just before the House was set to reconvene to vote on it. Around then, Libby told a reporter she had been summoned to Fecteau’s office, but she declined to say what they discussed.
BDN writer Michael Shepherd contributed to this report.