Governor Mills Signs Juvenile Justice Right to Counsel and Due Process Bill

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Governor Mills has signed LD 320 An Act to Provide the Right to Counsel for Juveniles and Improve Due Process for Juveniles into law. The law applies needed reforms to Maine’s juvenile legal system that will divert young children from incarceration and ensure that when youth are incarcerated they have an advocate in their corner able to articulate their concerns and ask for a closer look at their circumstances.

LD 320 will provide justice-involved youth with both the right to counsel upon incarceration and due process rights to seek alternatives to incarceration. It sets a minimum age of twelve for commitment to a juvenile correctional facility and provides that younger children may be detained no more than 7 days unless their lawyers agree. The bill ends the minimum one-year commitment to juvenile correctional facilities and requires judges to consider both the age of a young person and whether the offense committed would be considered a juvenile misdemeanor when deciding whether incarceration is appropriate. Rep. Victoria Morales of South Portland, who represents the District containing Long Creek Youth Development Center, sponsored the bill.

Mary L. Bonauto, GLAD’s Civil Rights Project Director, issued the following statement applauding the signing of the bill:

“Among our highest duties as a society is the care and support of young people. This is a step forward in shrinking the role of the criminal justice system in young people’s lives. LD 320 seeks to limit the use of secure confinement for Maine’s youngest children and provides all incarcerated young people with legal representation to seek the care, opportunities and support they need to be accountable, heal, and grow in healthy ways. This law recognizes that punitive measures are harmful and counterproductive to these goals and to public safety. Too many LGBTQ youth, youth of color, youth with disabilities, youth with limited financial means, and youth belonging to all of these categories, are pulled into the correctional system with unintended but significant long-term consequences. Most often, youth become entangled in the system for low level offenses and because there are no community services in place to keep them in their communities and connected to family and school. We’ve had many reports detailing the negative impacts of incarceration on children and their communities as well as recommendations for what our state needs to do to address those impacts. This bill is a positive step to move Maine forward and enable young people to succeed in taking their places in our communities.”

GLAD also testified in support of LD 1668, a bill led by Maine Youth Justice would that set a timetable for closing Long Creek over a period of years, provide a just transition for state workers, and reallocate resources into health care, education, employment and housing opportunities for youth. The legislature passed LD 1668 but it was vetoed by the governor.

Learn more about LD 320.

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June 18, 2021 (AUGUSTA) – Yesterday the Maine legislature voted down a proposal (LD 1238) that would have allowed women’s shelters across the state to turn away transgender women or any woman they wanted to – whether because of their race, national origin, religion, disability, or sexual orientation.

A second proposal targeting transgender girls for exclusion from school sports was voted down 80-53 in the House late last night, and is still pending a vote in the Senate when the legislature reconvenes June 30. That bill received strong opposition at a May public hearing from coaches, pediatricians, transgender youth and their parents and peers, as well as Maine officials and organizations, including the Attorney General, former Chief Justice Leigh Saufley, the Maine Principals’ Association, and the Human Rights Commission.

Shelter service providers, community service and justice organizations spoke out against the shelter bill (LD 1238) and are applauding the legislature’s actions to support inclusion of transgender women, and all people, in need of survival and emergency services.

“Once again Mainers have stood up for fairness by saying no to harmful proposals that would deny transgender women access to shelter and vital social services. Shelters across our state play a critical role in providing safety to women in need. Turning transgender women away from shelters puts those women at risk of exactly the type of mistreatment and abuse our shelter services are meant to prevent,” said Gia Drew, Program Director at EqualityMaine.

“I’m proud to see our Maine legislators support inclusion for transgender women. I know well from my own work in the community that transgender women experience some of the highest rates of housing insecurity, harassment and violence among women in Maine. There is always more work our state can do to ensure our social service networks can fully support all women in times of need, but in defeating LD 1238 the legislature recognized that allowing shelters to turn away some of our most vulnerable community members is counter to that goal,” said Quinn Gormley , Executive Director, MaineTransNet.

“It’s a relief to see the legislature stop this misguided bill that targeted transgender women and would have opened the door to discrimination in shelters on the basis race, national origin, religion, disability, or sexual orientation as well. Efforts to ban trans women from shelters would deny shelter to some of our most vulnerable community members when they need help the most. Today our state has once again affirmed the truth: all people, including trans people, belong in Maine,” said Meagan Sway, Policy Director, ACLU of Maine

“We know we can accommodate all women, transgender or not, when they are in need of emergency and homeless shelter because, as legislators heard at the hearing on LD 1238, the dedicated individuals who staff and run our shelters have been doing just that. Managing the stress and conflict that can occur when individuals are experiencing trauma, vulnerability and less privacy and autonomy is some of the hard work performed by shelter staff and management. Women seek out shelter services when they are at their most vulnerable, whether due to trauma, houselessness, or violence. With this vote our legislators affirmed the inclusion required by law, and also what shelter providers said at the hearing: that all women, including transgender women, deserve access to survival services. This is the record we’ve built in Maine; we treat all humans with dignity and respect,” said Mary L. Bonauto, Civil Rights Project Director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders

“With this vote the legislature affirmed a simple fact: every Mainer deserves to live with safety and respect. For those who experience abuse or housing insecurity, community organizations help fill that gap. Organizations that exist to ensure that safety are exactly the right places to welcome and affirm trans Mainers, and there is no place for legislation in our state that does not guarantee the rights of everyone to live in dignity, free from abuse,” said Destie Hohman Sprague, Executive Director, Maine Women’s Lobby

Equality Maine works to secure full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Maine through political action, community organizing, education, and collaboration. www .equalitymaine.org

MaineTransNet is Maine’s transgender community organization dedicated to supporting and empowering transgender people and those that love them. www.mainetrans.net

ACLU of Maine is the state’s guardian of liberty. It is active in the courts, the legislature and the public sphere to defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and to extend their promises to all Mainers. www.aclumaine.org

Through strategic litigation, public policy advocacy, and education, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders works in New England and nationally to create a just society free of discrimination based on gender identity and expression, HIV status, and sexual orientation. www.gladlaw.org

The Maine Women’s Lobby engages in legislative advocacy which increases the health, wellness, safety, and economic security of women and girls in Maine, and all Mainers who experience gender-based discrimination or oppression. www.mainewomen.org

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June 18, 2021 (Augusta) — GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) today welcomed the news that Governor Janet Mills has signed LD 1115, An Act to Improve Access to HIV Prevention Medications, which expands access to a simple, safe, and effective medication known as HIV pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) that reduces the risk of HIV transmission by close to 100%. The bill, sponsored by Senator Heather Sanborn of Cumberland and co-sponsored by House Speaker Ryan Fecteau and Senators Ned Claxton and Nahtan Libby, received bipartisan support. GLAD was a member of the coalition working towards passage of the bill and testified in the legislature.

The new law authorizes pharmacists to dispense PrEP, as well as HIV Post- exposure Prophylaxis (PEP), without a prescription on a short-term basis. The law also reduces barriers to accessing PrEP by requiring carriers to cover at least one HIV prevention drug without prior authorization or step therapy, and by codifying in Maine law the federal regulatory requirement that PrEP be provided by private insurers without copays. In addition, by requiring pharmacists to connect customers with medical care for ongoing PrEP oversight and other vital health needs, the law will also improve overall access to care. Maine is the third state in the nation to adopt such legislation, which will allow the most vulnerable populations, including Maine’s rural communities, to obtain PrEP quickly.

“Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) provides our best opportunity to end the HIV epidemic,” said Ben Klein, GLAD Senior Attorney and AIDS Law Project Director. “Yet despite its proven safety and effectiveness, PrEP remains under-prescribed and underutilized, particularly among populations for whom healthcare access disparities persist and place them at higher risk for contracting HIV. This bill goes a long way to opening up PrEP access and helping us end the HIV epidemic.”

“This law makes Maine a leader in ensuring that PrEP as well as HIV Post- exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) are accessible to all who need and can benefit from them,” added GLAD Law Fellow Anthony Lombardi, who testified on behalf of GLAD at the legislative hearing. “The law will increase access particularly for those in rural communities and among communities of color, where structural barriers including economic and resource inequality and systemic racism keep people vulnerable to both increased risk for HIV infection and poorer health outcomes overall.”

In a Community Position Statement in support of the legislation, over 30 organizations, advocates, and medical professionals explained the impact of expanding access to PrEP:

Simply put, HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is a game changer in HIV prevention; it is a simple, safe daily pill that reduces the risk of HIV transmission by close to 100 percent. Obtaining this medication at low or no cost through any avenue that is straightforward and accessible is imperative for the most vulnerable among us, including people of color, people who live in rural areas, people who have been incarcerated, and people who inject drugs and are working to stay safe. HIV Post- exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) is an equally remarkable and necessary medication intervention immediately following a potential exposure to HIV, including in cases of sexual assault. We need to do everything we can to expand access to PrEP/PEP and create more avenues to reduce HIV transmission.

In addition to GLAD, the coalition advocating to pass An Act to Improve Access to HIV Prevention Medications included Equality Maine, Frannie Peabody Center, and the Health Equity Alliance.

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GLAD Applauds Update to Maine Law Allowing Expanded Access to Voluntary Acknowledgments of Parentage

Governor Mills Signs LD 222, An Act to Update the Maine Parentage Act

June 11, 2021 (Augusta) — Governor Janet Mills has signed LD 222, An Act to Update the Maine Parentage Act. The law updates Maine’s parentage statute to expand access to Voluntary Acknowledgments of Parentage (VAP), a simple mechanism long available to establish parentage but previously inaccessible to many parents, including LGBTQ parents, in Maine. Federal law requires all states to provide a simple civil process for acknowledging parentage of a child at birth. This ensures that the protections and responsibilities of parentage attach as soon after birth as possible and ensures that both parents are reflected on a child’s birth certificate. A majority of children born to unmarried parents in the U.S. each year have their parentage established through a VAP, which is the equivalent of a court decree of parentage. A VAP is signed voluntarily and helps parents avoid the expense, delay and stress of litigation to establish parentage. LD 222, drafted by the Family Law Advisory Commission and introduced by lead sponsor Rep. Barbara Cardone, expands access to VAPs so that more children can be protected by this simple, administrative procedure. Genetic parents have always been able to establish parentage through a VAP, and this law expands access to that intended parents through assisted reproduction and presumed parents can sign VAPs to establish parentage of their children. Expanded access to the Voluntary Acknowledgments of Parentage is recommended by the Uniform Parentage Act of 2017. The UPA is model statutory language developed by the non-partisan Uniform Law Commission to ensure state parentage laws are constitutional and provide equal access to the security of legal parentage to all children, without regard to the gender or marital status of their parents. FLAC recommended substantially updating of Maine’s parentage laws in 2015, assisted by Mary Bonauto and others, and the legislature approved that recommendation and recognized through the Maine Parentage Act (MPA) the many ways in which families are formed. Although the MPA provided equal recognition of LGBTQ parents, it did not include access to VAPs. This bill updates Maine law to reflect the recommendations of UPA 2017 and to ensure greater access to parentage for children. “Having a secure legal relationship to their parents is fundamental to a child’s wellbeing and stability, and this update to the law makes that security accessible to more children in Maine,” said Polly Crozier, GLAD Senior Staff Attorney. “The VAP program is a straightforward means of establishing a child’s legal parentage from birth. Extending access to VAPs provides a fair, equitable and affordable means for LGBTQ parents to protect their children as close to birth as possible.” To date in addition to Maine, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington all allow LGBTQ parents to establish parentage through a VAP. Connecticut recently enacted the Connecticut Parentage Act that will make VAPs available to LGBTQ parents as of January 1, 2022. More information about VAPs can be found here.

Alternative Discipline, Not Criminal Punishment, in Maine Schools

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GLAD opposes Maine’s LD 1444 because it creates a new crime that would have serious and long-term negative effects on young people.

In testimony to the Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs, GLAD and EqualityMaine explained that the bill “…creates a crime that will have disastrous collateral effects for young people over their lifetimes and will not accomplish its goals in any event. The anti-bullying law enacted in 2011 recommends that schools consider “alternative discipline” rather than school exclusion or criminal penalties for addressing the consistent bullying of socially marginalized students. Other bills before the Legislature rightly seek to explore the uses of restorative processes to promote responsibility and accountability without exclusion from school or channeling young people into the criminal system.”

Instead, we would “like to see dedicated, enhanced, and creative efforts to build schools as zones of mutual respect that help prepare students for success in a diverse and ever-changing world and in which teachers and staff can support student learning and development.”

Read GLAD and EqualityMaine’s full testimony.

Addressing Discrimination Complaints in Maine Schools

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GLAD supports the goals of LD 1512, which would create an Office of the Education Ombudsman, which would serve as a resource and facilitate complaints for parents and students in the Maine’s public school system. The bill also directs the Department of Education to establish a commission to explore possible reporting and response systems to help public schools address reports of discrimination and harassment.

Read testimony delivered by GLAD and EqualityMaine.

Improve Access to PrEP in Maine

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Victory! On June 18, 2021, Governor Janet Mills signed the bill to expand access to a simple, safe and effective medication known as HIV pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) that reduces the risk of HIV transmission by close to 100%. Read our statement.

An Act to Improve Access to HIV Prevention Medications (LD 1115) will expand access to a medication known as HIV pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEP is the most effective tool we have to prevent HIV transmission and bring an end to the HIV epidemic.

The bill authorizes pharmacists to dispense PrEP without a prescription on a short-term basis. This would allow the most vulnerable populations, including rural communities, to obtain PrEP quickly; remove cost barriers to PrEP consistent with federal directives; and improve access to care by requiring pharmacists to link customers to medical care for ongoing PrEP oversight and other vital health needs.

In a Community Position Statement, over 30 organizations, advocates, and medical professionals explained the impact of expanding access to PrEP:

“Simply put, HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is a game changer in HIV prevention; it is a simple, safe daily pill that reduces the risk of HIV transmission by close to 100 percent. Obtaining this medication at low or no cost through any avenue that is straightforward and accessible is imperative for the most vulnerable among us, including people of color, people who live in rural areas, people who have been incarcerated, and people who inject drugs and are working to stay safe. However, a host of factors has led to severe underutilization of this extraordinary medication. These include: stigmas associated with being a gay or bisexual person, being a man who has sex with men, and intravenous drug use; fear or distrust about talking to doctors about their risk behaviors; and a general lack of education – the availability of the medication, its costs, and the adherence regime – among the community and care providers. HIV Post- exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) is an equally remarkable and necessary medication intervention immediately following a potential exposure to HIV, including in cases of sexual assault.

We need to do everything we can to expand access to PrEP/PEP and create more avenues to reduce HIV transmission. This bill is an innovative, simple, and effective approach that (1) begins to reduce the significant barriers that people face in accessing PrEP/PEP, and (2) allows those at risk to obtain these medications quickly and safely. Finally, this bill is an additional tool to tackle the systemic problem of health care access and connections to care for those at risk of HIV by requiring participating pharmacists to act as a point of contact and reference to primary care providers for individuals seeking this treatment.”

Read the full statement (PDF).
Read GLAD’s testimony (PDF).
Learn more about PrEP from the CDC.
Learn more about PEP from the CDC.

Extending Shelter Access for Young People in Maine

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Update: On June 8, 2021, An Act To Ensure the Safety of Children Experiencing Homelessness by Extending Shelter Placement Periods (LD 81) was signed into law.

While youth across all backgrounds can experience homelessness, LGBTQ youth and youth of color (particularly Native American and Black youth) are more likely to become homeless. By updating Maine’s definition of certain children’s shelters, LD 81 and LD 1076 will allow our most vulnerable young people to lengthen their stay at shelters. This means young people experiencing homelessness will have more time to get the support they need with a safe place to eat and sleep.

On April 8, 2021, GLAD Civil Rights Project Director Mary Bonauto delivered testimony about the bills to the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services. Read her testimony in support of An Act To Ensure the Safety of Children Experiencing Homelessness by Extending Shelter Placement Periods (LD 81) and An Act To Support the Operations of Youth Shelters in Maine (LD 1076).

Implementing Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Training for Educators

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On April 5, 2021, GLAD Civil Rights Project Director Mary Bonauto delivered testimony in support of LD 633, a Resolve Directing the Maine Department of Education to Implement Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Training for Educators, and LD 880, An Act to Prohibit School Employees from Workplace Bullying.

As the National Association of Elementary School Principals has explained, “Ninety-six percent of major employers say it is ‘important’ that employees be comfortable working with colleagues, customers, and/or clients from diverse cultural backgrounds. These statistics make it imperative that our nation’s schools not only welcome diversity in the classroom but also teach students how to navigate an increasingly racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse society and global economy.”

To those ends, LD 633 assists school staff by ensuring they continue building knowledge and cultural competencies to engage and foster success for all of their students and to increase students’ abilities to cooperate across differences. This bill would direct the Department of Education (MDOE) and the State Board of Education to amend their rules to require diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) training as a condition of recertification for teachers and some administrative staff. LD 880 supports school employees as they teach and support our children and young people by adding “school employees” to those protected by the existing anti-bullying law, and also adding a prohibition against interfering with their work performance or their ability to participate in work-related school activities.

Read Mary’s full testimony here.

Protecting Due Process for Youth in Maine

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LD 320, An Act To Provide the Right to Counsel for Juveniles and Improve Due Process for Juveniles, will provide youth with both the right to counsel and improved due process rights. These rights, guaranteed to adults, help protect our youth and lower recidivism and crime.

Update 6/25/2021: Governor Mills signed LD 320 into law. Read GLAD’s statement.

This bill is designed to guarantee young people the protection of an attorney in their corner. With LGBTQ youth overrepresented in juvenile detention facilities, their unique mental and physical health struggles can go overlooked. While many youth in the state of Maine today have no real representation, this bill would ensure that young people are not overcharged and overbooked. Length of stay remains an issue, as does simply processing through the cases.

Prison is simply not a productive environment for young people and has measurable detrimental consequences. It is in everyone’s interest not to overlook our youth, and to make sure they are getting the support they need. GLAD is happy to join numerous other organizations to endorse the passage of this bill.

Read testimony from GLAD Civil Rights Project Director Mary Bonauto.

View legislation and full testimony from other groups on the legislation webpage.