EXCLUSIVE: Maine moves to create 'sanctuary state' for child sex changes

A Maine judiciary committee will decide on Wednesday morning whether a bill permitting minors to travel to the state to seek sex changes and granting the state custody over children will move to the floor. 

LD1735, also called An Act to Safeguard Gender-affirming Health Care, was introduced to the House of Representatives in the state in April of 2023 by Rep. Laurie Osher of Orono, and is cosponsored by Reps Erin Sheehan of Biddeford, Nina Milliken of Blue Hill, Suzanne Salisbury of Westbrook, Mark Worth of Ellsworth, and Rep. Matt Moonen of Portland as well as Senator Anne Carney of Cumberland.

Courage is a Habit, a group fighting for parental rights in states across the nation, is leading an effort to stop this bill. With a deadline of 10 pm on Tuesday, the group urges the public to contact members of the state judiciary committee to voice their concerns. 

Alvin Lui, president of Courage is a Habit, told The Post Millennial that people who do not live in Maine should contact the committee members as well as Maine residents as the bill "affects everybody’s parental rights."

Sample emails provided by the group tell the members that "There is a lack of long-term studies on the benefits of 'gender-affirming care,’ which could result in the life-long sterilization and surgical mutilation of children," "With lawsuits against hospitals and schools on the rise in 2023, the public is becoming more aware of the potential risks associated with this bill," and "Protecting parental rights and the well-being of children should be our top priority. I urge you to vote "ought not to pass" on LD 1735."

LD 1735 "prohibits the enforcement of an order based on another state's law authorizing a child to be removed from the child's parent or guardian based on that parent or guardian allowing the child to receive gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care."

A law enforcement agency would be prohibited from knowingly making or participating in the arrest or extradition of an individual on an out-of-state warrant for violating another state’s laws on bringing a child to Maine to give sex change treatments.

The bill updates rules on abandonment of a child or emergency situations, granting the State temporary emergency jurisdiction over the child if the child "has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care" because of a parent or guardian.

The bill also prevents courts from finding a case was brought forth in an "inconvenient forum," or the wrong court, "if the law or policy of another state that may take jurisdiction limits the ability of a parent to obtain gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care for a child and the provision of that care is at issue in the case before the court."

LD1735 "prohibits a court from considering the taking or retention of a child from a person who has legal custody of the child if the taking or retention was for obtaining gender-affirming health care or gender-affirming mental health care for the child."

The bill mirrors similar laws passed in California, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington and Minnesota.

Lui told The Post Millennial, "refuse to let your kindness be weaponized against you."

"If you're wondering how you got there in Maine, wherever you live ... it's because over time, you've allowed your kindness to be weaponized against you and they kept moving that goalpost and now, even when they're proposing a transgender trafficking bill, they're still using emotional blackmail to try to get you to accept this," he said.

Lui said that "they’re quite literally opening up trafficking avenues by inviting children from other states where their parents do not agree to transgender sterilization drugs and mutilating surgeries, and they're going to welcome these kids in Maine using your taxpayer dollars through Medicaid to pay for these procedures, putting them in foster care, opening them up to vulnerabilities like sex trafficking, like abuse, not to mention the lifelong, irreversible procedures and drugs that the transgender the transgender cult promotes."

"So there is no slippery slope. You're here at the bottom now because they're willing to remove kids from parents, and the next step will be to remove your children from your home in Maine," Lui added, noting the instance of California.

Maine LD 1735 by Hannah Nightingale on Scribd