News from the Pine Tree State
A well-earned honor
Dan Crewe, gay philanthropist, retired US Air Force officer, and supporter of LGBTQ rights and other humanitarian causes in his home state of Maine and beyond, received an honorary doctorate from the Maine College of Art, where he’s served on the board since 2011. He has also served on the board of directors of Maine’s LGBTQ advocacy nonprofit Equality Maine.
“A passionate philanthropist and humanitarian, his leadership in supporting the arts, education and human rights, including LGBTQ support, has had an enormous impact on the lives of countless Mainers,” reported the Bangor Daily News.
According to ACLU Maine, which honored him in 2018 with its Scolnik Award, “As a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, a retired captain in the U.S. Air Force, and a gay man, his advocacy and personal story helped end the ban on LGBTQ people serving in the military. Dan is deeply involved with the ACLU of Maine and countless other organizations.”
Youth Pride art
The Center for Maine Contemporary Art and Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s Erickson Fields Preserve displayed art, photography and poetry by LGBTQ+ and allied youth for the entire Pride month of June.
Curated by OUT Maine, The Youth Pride Art Show featured art and writing from youth ages 12 to 20 from all over Maine. The artwork was displayed in the ArtLab window of the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland.
Plus, the youth artwork was part of Pride Walk in Rockland, which featured LGBTQ+ and allied youth poetry paired with art and photography in a series of display cases along a wooded 1.4-mile loop trail at Erickson Fields Preserve, which runs along Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s Teen Ag Crew’s vegetable garden.
OUT Maine has an ambitious goal: to create more welcoming and affirming communities for Maine’s diverse queer youth in all of their intersectional identities by changing the very systems that serve them.
More: outmaine.org
The Trevor Project
Leading Maine lawmakers—including US Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, US Congressman Jared Golden and US Senators Angus King and Susan Collins—teamed up in a Trevor Project video to support LGBTQ youth. The video’s release was timed to air at the end of Mental Health Awareness month (May) and the start of Pride month. It was distributed, along with videos featuring leaders across the US, over The Trevor Project’s social media channels.
The Trevor Project is the nation’s leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ and questioning young people under 25.
“No one should feel that suicide is their only option, but the sad truth is that far too many teenagers who identify as LGBTQ are struggling and do not feel safe or welcome,” the Maine Delegation wrote in a joint statement.
“We want these young people to know that they are never alone and that there is always hope and help. As National Mental Health Awareness Month comes to a close and Pride month kicks off, this is a perfect time to help share the resources that are available and to send a message that you are never alone.”
More: thetrevorproject.org
‘Ought-not-to-pass’ bills
A trio of anti-trans bills received the thumbs down from the house judiciary committee in May. “Each of the bills received majority ‘ought-not-to-pass’ designations,” reports the Maine Beacon. “The bills are not likely to go anywhere on the floor of the legislature, as Democrats [who voted against them] have the majority in both chambers and Janet Mills, a Democrat, holds the governor’s office.”
Two of the bills aimed to bar transgender women and girls from school sports, and the third supported discrimination of trans women in women’s shelters.
“The shelter bill, the sports bills, those are fabricated issues,” Quinn Gormley, executive director of the Maine Transgender Network, told the Beacon. “But even though they are not going to become law, they have done real harm, particularly to young people. I am devastated that another generation of queer kids know what it feels like to have their existence debated by their leaders,” Gormley said, adding that comments at the public hearing by those in favor of the discriminatory bills were extremely vitriolic.”
Nevertheless, said Gormley, “The incredible support we got stood out to us. I’ve never seen such a deep bench of support on a trans issue before this year.”
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