Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby, a Republican, says she has no intention of taking down her social media post about a biological male competing in women’s sports, despite being censured by the state legislature for refusing to apologize.<\/p>\n
The Democratic majority in the Maine House passed a censure resolution<\/a> in a 75-70 vote Tuesday night after Libby refused to apologize for posting an image of a high school transgender female athlete who won the state championship in women’s pole-vaulting last week, but had competed in the men’s division as recently as last year. As a result of the censure, Libby is now no longer allowed to speak on the House floor or vote.<\/p>\n “I am exploring options at this point because I do not believe that this censuring is constitutional,” Libby told Fox News Digital. “I will not apologize for speaking the truth and for speaking up for Maine girls\u2026 there will be more to come as we explore those options.”<\/p>\n MAINE FEMALE ATHLETE \u2018GRATEFUL\u2019 FOR TRUMP’S FOCUS ON TRANS COMPETITORS AFTER LOCAL LEADERS \u2018FAILED\u2019 GIRLS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n While Libby would not divulge specific details about her plans to find a way around her censure without issuing an apology, or taking down her post, Libby said she intends to “capitalize” on the fact that, in November, Republicans only lost a chance at regaining the majority in Maine’s House by just 60 votes. Since 2019, the Maine legislature, as well as the governor’s office, have been occupied by Democrats.<\/p>\n “This sets an incredibly dangerous precedent that someone could be silenced for a social media post,” Libby said Wednesday. “It is a terribly dangerous road to go down and that’s why I am considering all options, because this cannot be allowed to stand.”<\/p>\n Libby defended her post of an image of the Maine high school athlete,<\/a> who last week won first place in the women’s pole vault at Maine’s Class B state indoor championship. The image included a picture of the athlete, a transgender woman, competing the year prior and identifying as a male. The premise of Libby’s censure by the Maine House was focused on the fact that she posted a photo of a minor and provided that minor’s name.<\/p>\n DEM GOVERNOR FUNDRAISES OFF DUST-UP WITH TRUMP OVER TRANS SPORTS: \u2018I TOLD HIM WE\u2019D SEE HIM IN COURT’<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n During the Tuesday night vote, Libby attempted to defend herself but was repeatedly interrupted by Democrats.<\/a> Libby was told her defense \u2013 which emphasized the importance of protecting women in sports \u2013 was not relevant to the issue at hand: her decision to post a picture of a minor on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Some of my colleagues that were allowed to speak last night and weren’t silenced as vigorously as I was, were able to articulate and express that this is a First Amendment<\/a> right, the right to free speech,” Libby said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Maine state Rep. Laurel Libby, a Republican, says she has no intention of taking down her social media post about a biological male competing in women’s sports, despite being censured by the state legislature for refusing to apologize. The Democratic majority in the Maine House passed a censure resolution in a 75-70 vote Tuesday night … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}