A recent transphobic and unconstitutional executive order from President Trump stated that transgender women cannot compete in women’s sports. Maine Gov. Janet Mills stated at a White House meeting with other governors that she will not comply and she will “see [Trump] in court” over the issue.
As a trans Mainer myself, I am thankful for Gov. Mills’ courage. In times like these, when our democracy is crumbling and authoritarianism is quickly on the rise, we need people in power to use what power they have within these systems to resist and speak up.
At every LGBTQ event I’ve seen her speak at, Gov. Mills loves to tout Maine’s same-sex marriage legalization in 2012, or the banning of conversion therapy in 2019. While these things are making a difference for queer people in Maine, they’re not of themselves sufficient. All Maine’s people, but especially those who are poor, disenfranchised and victims of racism, homophobia and transphobia, deserve better.
Given the amount of “rainbow washing” she’s done, the governor would have us believe she’s progressive. But I do not believe Mills is a fan of trans people in general. In a recent Politico interview, she said, “We’ve got to talk about pocketbook issues and get over the identity politics — that’s in the past, I think — and get rid of the buzzwords.” She thinks that Democrats are only seen as fighting for “transgender this and that, every multicultural person,” and that they need to run on “substance.” If Mills wants to be an arbiter of the wellness of transgender Mainers, fine, but here’s my suggestion: make material changes for trans Mainers, which in turn improves all our lives.
We have a housing crisis that is affecting the entire state. From 2020 to 2024, while Maine’s wages have remained relatively stagnant, the median home price grew by more than 50%. According to Maine Housing, the Point in Time Survey shows there were about 2,097 unhoused people in Maine in 2020, with that number jumping to 4,258 in 2023.
Though the numbers for 2024 appear lower, that is actually not due to a decrease in homelessness, but rather a “decreased count in emergency motel rooms, for which pandemic-related funding is no longer available.” And within those staggering statistics, the reality for trans people in the United States is worse than you can imagine.
Trans people in Maine face increased disparities in housing and higher levels of discrimination than the general public. The 2022 U.S. Trans Survey says that 30% of respondents had experienced homelessness in their lifetime. And just like everyone, we are dealing with high rents and home prices.
Even with all of these difficulties with housing, Mills is making cuts to General Assistance in this next budget plan through to 2027. General Assistance was meant to be a short-term, last-resort assistance program for housing but has shifted to help with the long-term. Just because GA is going beyond its initial mission, does that mean it needs to be cut? How else will people get access to long-term housing in an already unstable housing market? Could we not tax the millionaires and billionaires their fair share to prevent the slew of cuts to necessary programming? It’s something to think about as President Trump threatens to withhold federal funding to Maine.
What we know to be a major factor for Mainers’ ability to buy homes is that 1 in 5 Maine homes are being bought by investors, not Maine people. So I ask the question: Is there something that our legislators can do to take up this issue? Can we work together to pass laws that prevent investors from buying up Maine properties and keep the cost of housing down?
Gov. Mills has also been an unmovable force when it comes to the issue of child imprisonment. Some may remember back in 2016 when 16-year-old Maze, a transgender youth, killed themself at the Long Creek Youth Development Center. He needed mental health support and supervision, but instead was separated from his peers, stripped of educational opportunity and left isolated.
Mills has, over and over again, halted progress in disrupting the juvenile justice system in Maine that has done more harm to our youth than good. In 2021, Mills vetoed a bill that would have closed Long Creek Youth Development Center, Maine’s only youth prison facility. If she wants to support trans youth in Maine — who are more likely to be incarcerated than their cisgender peers — in the same way she stood up for us in the face of authoritarianism just a few days ago, she should close Long Creek.
I could name many other ways in which Mills’ track record does not make her a bastion of progress in my eyes (like how as attorney general she never found a police officer unjustified in use of deadly police force, or how she vetoed L.D. 2004, An Act to Restore Access to Federal Laws Beneficial to the Wabanaki Nations, which had bipartisan support). We need legislators to bring into focus what the real agenda is for trans people.
Trans people want the world to be better, materially and socially, for everyone. We want egg and gas prices to be low, wages to be high, housing and health care for all, and to be accepted by our neighbors. If that’s not “substance,” I don’t know what is.