News from the Pine Tree State
State house history maker
Maine State Rep. Ryan Fecteau, 28, made history on Dec. 2. As he entered his fourth term in the legislature, Fecteau was officially elected and sworn in as Maine’s youngest and first openly gay Speaker of the House. He’d received an unanimous nomination by the incoming Democratic House majority caucus the previous week before the full incoming legislative body took the vote.
When first elected to the Maine legislature in 2014, Fecteau was the youngest openly gay state rep ever elected in the US. He now becomes the youngest state speaker of the house in the country.
He was instrumental in the state’s ban on conversion therapy, his efforts having initially been blocked by then Gov. Paul LePage before LePage, who consistently stood against LGBTQ rights, left office. But Fecteau persevered. He has also championed affordable housing, health care and equal rights issues in his first six years in office.
“I am grateful for the support of the Maine House and I step into the role of Speaker with both confidence and humility,” Fecteau said in a statement.
More Nov. 3 winners
Congratulations, too, to Fecteau’s fellow openly LGBTQ winners of the Nov. 3 election in the Pine Tree State, incumbent State Reps Kyle Bailey, Laurie Osher, Lois Reckitt, Charlotte Warren and Barbara Wood.
Inclusivity leader
Maine has the most LGBTQ-inclusive laws and policies in the United States, according to Movement Advancement Project thinktank.
Explains the Portland Press Herald, which reported this news, “Maine stands out for its civil rights laws, which prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity; its health care regulations, which prevent insurance companies from discriminating against people who are transgender, and its family law protections, which don’t discriminate against same-sex couples in marriage or adoptions.
In addition to those protections, Maine also receives high scores for not having any laws that let individuals and secular businesses ignore civil rights laws based on their professed religious beliefs.”
Revised protections
Up near the Canadian border, the town of Houlton added sexual orientation protections to its general provisions for employment.
“No employment shall be subject to discrimination, nor denied the benefits of normal employment thereof, on account of race, color, sex, physical or mental handicap, religion, sexual orientation, ancestry, national origins, or age, by any employee or agent of the town,” the section reads. The previous wording did not include the phrase “sexual orientation,” read the revised document.
The council also amended its sexual harassment policies to include protections against “derogatory or vulgar comments regarding sexual orientation,” according to the Houlton Pioneer Times, which noted that the “addition of protections against sexual orientation [discrimination] comes after a United States Supreme Court ruling last summer clarifying that the 1964 Civil Rights Act provided protection for LGBTQ employees from discrimination.”
‘Great Whoopie Pie Debate’
As he heads out of office, openly gay Maine State Senator Justin Chenette has published a full-length children’s book about state government.
“The Great Whoopie Pie Debate: A Kids’ Guide to the Maine Legislature” follows the steps of the legislative process when legislators actually debated whether whoopie pies should be the state dessert.
“My hope with this book is to help amplify civics education across our state with Maine’s next generation,” says Chenette. “When students understand how their own government works, it leads to better outcomes for our Democratic society.”
Chenette plans to donate a copy to area schools with an ultimate goal of sending a book to every elementary school in the state. He plans to fundraise online to cover the publishing and shipping costs through his newly formed nonprofit, the Maine Democracy Project.
In 2016, at age 21, Chenette became not only the youngest legislator in Maine but the youngest openly gay lawmaker in the United States.
More: whoopiepie.org
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