Henry Abbott

During the first Trump administration, I followed the advice of seasoned organizers to select a specific issue to dedicate time, learning and action to. Having selected queer issues at large, I recognized very quickly that by far the largest threat to queer people was the target that had been plastered on the trans community.

Eight years ago, as a cisgender woman in Louisiana, I couldn’t have imagined that in 2025 I’d be working for a transgender advocacy and support organization in Maine, much less that Maine would be taking center stage in the national fight for trans rights three months into a second Trump administration.

Despite not being on my 2025 bingo card, however, the events of the last three months have offered Mainers a tremendous opportunity to speak out and take weighted action in a time and place where those efforts will have a very measurable effect not just in Maine but nationwide.

That time is now. As the lawsuits Governor of Maine Janet Mills promised in January play out, a swath of anti-trans bills—ranging from banning trans girls from playing on teams aligned with their genders to removing “gender identity” as a protected class in the Maine Human Rights Act entirely—have been introduced into state legislature and will be heard in the coming days.

While trans athletes’ participation in sports has been driven as a wedge issue by anti-trans activists for years, this topic has risen to the top of cultural debate in the U.S. to the extent that many previously supportive centrists or moderate liberals have begun to sway, seeking to return focus to the challenges that are meaningfully impacting the communities they’re part of or represent.

But compromising isn’t an option because it’s not about sports.

The idea of “fairness in sports” is being successfully and disproportionately weaponized to center trans participants, targeting a minuscule minority of students who deserve that chance to simply be part of a team. This focus on “fairness” entirely ignores other factors with far greater relevance to exponentially larger demographics (including but not limited to financial or geographic access and race).

Further, virtually every measure taken in the name of protecting women and girls actually harms cis women disproportionately. The bills currently proposed in Maine, and in effect other states, blatantly violate the privacy and safety of all students—there are no safeguards preventing anyone from accusing anyone else of being trans and subjecting them to humiliating and violating lines of questioning, or even invasive “gender checks.” These bills are blatantly unconstitutional, violating both state and federal guarantees of equal protection.

As transphobia has skyrocketed, cisgender women and girls are increasingly feeling the fallout in other ways. Anyone who doesn’t adhere to gender norms becomes a target for not only harassment but also very real threats, particularly in states where trans women are banned from women’s spaces. In January, Representatives Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert accosted a cis woman for using a woman’s bathroom in the U.S. Capitol. In February, a 19-year-old Black lesbian was using a public restroom when two male police officers barged in after a store employee reported her. In March, a cisgender woman was fired from Walmart after a male customer accused her of being trans. There is no way to target trans women and girls without targeting all women and girls.

Nor will the policing of gender, queerness and bodily autonomy end with trans people. Already, states are laying the groundwork to target same-sex marriage. Reproductive rights continue to be threatened and decimated, and people are being arrested for freedom of speech and expression.

The most important piece: What can we do?

• Learn more about the bills in session: MaineTransNet and Equality Maine have developed resource pages with information about the bills in question, fact sheets and FAQs, resources for trans people and resources for allies.
• Contact your legislators in the Maine State Legislature, and let them know that you oppose any and all anti-trans legislation.
• Prepare and submit testimony.
• Follow local organizations for updates regarding when the bills will be heard and to stay on top of any calls to action over the next few weeks. You can sign up for MaineTransNet’s Community Action Alert email list for the most up-to-date information.

At the end of the day, to compromise on trans rights is to compromise on human rights. We cannot move further down that road while human rights are being threatened and stripped on a massive scale with terrifying speed. Now is the time for allies—especially my fellow cisgender women—to use our voices and the unique influence we have as Mainers in this moment to make sure that as Maine goes, so goes the nation, and as such, we will not bend when it comes to the inherent rights, worth and dignity of any person or population in our state.

Avery Friend was an employee of the McKeen Center for the Common Good.