Alicia Fiori lives in Lewiston.
I am unsure why a bill to ban transgender athletes is being introduced or, frankly, considered. In the experience of myself and many others, Maine has always stood for two very particular philosophies.
You care for your neighbors and friends. You don’t get involved in people’s private business and lives.
As an example, my neighbors are on the older side and I, as a younger person, offer my help when I can. Carrying groceries, clearing snow off their car and helping with the little things.
What I am certainly not going to do is tell my neighbors what they should believe, how they should think or how they should run their private lives. I would certainly hope they would do the same for me.
Mainers are a forward-thinking, intelligent, thoughtful, direct and caring bunch. It is often said from our folks “from away” that they have never met such great people.
We’ve seen bills like these introduced in other states and we as a people have been confused and downright angry. “Not here” I’ve heard many say. “That’s not who we are.” They are absolutely right. It’s not who we are.
Mainers are not and never have been the type to tell others how to live their lives. We showed this clearly through our steady and continuous support of our Native Mainers, new Mainers, Indigenous peoples, the LGBTQIA+ community and everyone in between. We make room for everyone here, and we respect the lives and choices others make.
It’s important to discuss how this bill would create a nuisance and expense for every school district. The bill would require public schools to maintain separate bathrooms, locker and shower rooms and other private spaces for each sex.
How many “private spaces” will need to be created in each and every school? There are 122 current high schools alone in Maine. We have to ensure that every single one has multiple bathrooms, locker rooms and “private spaces” to match the gender- based needs of every student.
That’s a whole lot of funding that would be better spent on the education of our Maine kids. Not to mention the bullying, trauma and othering these students would likely go through by using these facilities.
How and by who is this being checked? I know it sounds facetious but who is checking the kids to make sure they are in the right bathroom? Are we hiring people to be “bathroom bouncers” to stand outside and check IDs before someone can use the facilities? How much are the people of Maine paying them? Are student IDs going to start including gender? Do parents have to have new paperwork for their kids to start school: vaccines, physical, medications, gender exam?
Or can we all take a moment to agree that we as Mainers have the capacity for respect?
We can all agree to save a whole lot of time, energy and tax dollars by doing things the way life should be and giving respect to our fellow Mainers, adults and students alike.