Above the fold on April 9, the Press Herald told the truth but with a slant: “Maine prisons to lose some funds over transgender inmate, AG says.” A truer headline could have read: “Maine prisons to lose some funds over federal administration’s anti-transgender crusade.”

The person incarcerated in a prison according to her gender identity is not responsible for Maine’s loss of funding, nor is the state of Maine. To imply that the fault lies with the marginalized individual, or with Maine authorities adhering to state laws, is to blame them for the behavior of a bully.

Transgender people are blamed enough for the woes of people who haven’t yet gotten to know and love a trans person. The Trump administration is effectively asking Mainers to choose trans rights or money. On a broader scale, they’re asking us to choose one another or money. What is the price point, they want to know, at which we’ll betray our neighbors?

I’m the child of Chinese immigrants who well remember the Communist Revolution. Neighbors were encouraged to spy on neighbors. Siblings turned on one another. A people’s psyche is easily conquered when their sense of belonging to one another is shredded.

“Every word has consequences,” said the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. “Every silence, too.” Sartre’s times were like ours — often chaotic and inhumane, pocked with opportunities for truth and kindness.

I invite people to tell the truth straight-on. Bullies don’t need our help spinning their yarns. Here in Maine, we tell it like it is.

Ophelia Hu Kinney
Scarborough