Improve Access to PrEP in Maine

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Zwycięstwo! 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.

Ustawa o poprawie dostępu do leków zapobiegających zakażeniom wirusem HIV (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 na poparcie 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.

Ensuring Transgender Girls Can Participate in School Sports in Maine

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Transgender girls deserve to have full access to all educational opportunities, including playing on girls’ sports teams.

LD 926 would ban transgender girls from participating in school sports. When we tell transgender girls that they can’t play girls’ sports, it sends the harmful message that they don’t belong.

Learn more about why it’s so essential to protect access to the lessons and benefits of all areas of education for all youth, including transgender youth by reading our statement.

Aktualności

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Łączność:
Gia Drew, EqualityMaine, 207-423-0580, gdrew@equalitymaine.org
Quinn Gormley, Maine TransNet, 207-832-1719, quinn@mainetransnet.org

March 8, 2021 (AUGUSTA) – Maine civil rights and community organizations which advocate for the wellbeing of LGBTQ youth in the state are speaking out against proposed legislation targeting transgender girls. LD 926, introduced by Representative Beth O’Connor, seeks to limit transgender girls’ and young women’s fair educational access by barring them from participation in elementary, secondary and post-secondary school sports. The bill would also require an invasive and demeaning medical examination for any girl or young woman who is wrongly excluded from participation on a girls’ or women’s team.

“As Mainers we all want fairness in school sports but this bill isn’t fair, it’s harmful to young people. Not only would the bill exclude some girls and young women from important developmental opportunities because of who they are, it would subject any girl who wants to challenge that exclusion to a prying and privacy-invading medical exam.”

powiedział Gia Drew, Program Director at EqualityMaine.

“Transgender girls want the opportunity to play sports for the same reasons as all girls – to be part of a team and feel like they belong. Sports help young people develop important qualities like leadership, self-respect, and teamwork. When we tell transgender girls that they can’t play girls’ sports they miss out on this important childhood experience.”

powiedział Quinn Gormley , Executive Director, MaineTransNet.

“This bill is misguided and harmful. Efforts to ban trans girls from participating in girls’ sports jeopardize their mental health, physical well-being and ability to access education opportunities similar to other students. All children, including trans children, belong in Maine.”

powiedział Meagan Sway, Policy Director, ACLU of Maine

“We can have both fairness for girls and inclusion of all girls in sports. Allowing young people to develop and grow as people through participating in sports is good for them and for their, and all our, futures. That’s the track record we’ve built in Maine.”

powiedział Mary L. Bonauto, Civil Rights Project Director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders

Równość 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 supports and empowers transgender people to create a world where they can thrive. 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

Poprzez strategiczne spory sądowe, orędownictwo w zakresie polityki publicznej i edukację, Adwokaci i obrońcy GLBTQ działa w Nowej Anglii i na szczeblu krajowym na rzecz stworzenia sprawiedliwego społeczeństwa wolnego od dyskryminacji ze względu na tożsamość i ekspresję płciową, status HIV i orientację seksualną.

Learn more about the legislation

To Prevent Children Being Removed from Parental Custody on the Basis of Low Income

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Update: On March 30, 2021, The Maine legislature voted LD 396 Ought Not to Pass. We continue our advocacy for children in low-income families so they are connected to resources instead of being separated from their parents.

On March 2, 2021, Civil Rights Project Director Mary L. Bonauto submitted testimony supporting LD 396, “An Act To Require the Department of Health and Human Services To Provide Assistance with Applications for Basic Necessities To Prevent Children Being Removed from Parental Custody.”

This legislation addresses the inequity of a system that removes children from their families due to lower income levels instead of providing support. Current policy disproportionately affects Black and Brown families in Maine due to poverty rates being higher among African American, followed by Latinx, Asian American, and Indigenous residents. This bill would help families access existing programs to improve stability, stay together, and prevent needless trauma caused by separation.

Read Mary Bonauto’s full testimony here.

Blog

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Our commitment to LGBTQ youth means we work with youth from all walks of life, as individuals and in families, and in the state and local “systems” of education, child welfare, and juvenile justice. Civil Rights Project Director Mary Bonauto served on the Maine Juvenile Justice Re-investment Task Force in 2019-20. The Task Force’s Final Report showed the strong connections between incarceration and previous school suspensions (or “push out”) and past child welfare findings about children experiencing harm. Young people in the juvenile criminal system are disproportionately youth of color and LGBTQ.

Further, the biennial health survey of Maine youth shows that LGBTQ youth are still more likely to feel unsupported at home, to be bullied at school, to contemplate suicide, and to use drugs and alcohol than their non-LGBTQ peers. Even though young people are resilient, rejection from families and system involvement disrupt childhood, impede development, and create higher risk of mental and behavioral health challenges, homelessness, and adult incarceration.

In the past six months, we have been on the ground in the Maine legislature and in policy settings, working with young people and many adult allies to bring basic reforms to the juvenile system to encourage diversion, end incarceration for the purpose of “supervision” of a youth who has nowhere to go, to shorten sentences, and bring more due process into the system by assigning youth lawyers who can petition for less restrictive alternatives. We are also supporting both legislative and COVID-19-driven collaborative efforts to remove young people from Maine’s youth prison and into the community with the safety and supports everyone needs.

Among many other initiatives, we also continue our Maine work addressing school policing and advocacy for restorative justice, supporting the youth led-campaign to close the Long Creek juvenile detention center, advocating for LGBTQ-competent policy changes to state agencies and on data collection, and service on the Justice for Children Task Force, convened by the State Supreme Judicial Court. The city of Portland made a landmark decision in June to remove school resource officers, thus removing police officers from public school campuses. You can read Mary Bonauto’s testimony supporting this important development Tutaj.

Kliknij tutaj aby dowiedzieć się więcej i przeczytać cały numer GLAD Briefs z lata 2020 r.

GLAD heralds streamlined process for amending gender designation on Maine birth certificates

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Today a new Maine Department of Health and Human Services rule went into effect that removes unnecessary barriers to amending gender markers on birth certificates, and makes available the option of choosing an X marker.

The new rule allows individuals over 18 and emancipated minors to obtain an updated birth record with their appropriate gender marker via a notarized attestation, without the requirement of a medical affidavit or court order. The rule also provides for the option of an X marker, allowing for more accurate records for individuals who do not identify as exclusively female or male, including those who may identify as nonbinary or intersex. Parents or legal guardians of minor children can request an updated birth record for their child by submitting a notarized attestation combined with certification from a licensed medical or mental health care provider.

“This is an important development for people across Maine who simply want to live their lives as who they are and avoid the barriers created legally and socially from inaccurate gender markers on official identification,” said Mary L. Bonauto, Civil Rights Project Director at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD). “Birth records are a critically important means for personal identification. The change to a simpler administrative process for amending gender markers and the inclusion of an X marker to recognize a range of gender identities are both in line with the approach taken in a growing number of states, as well as other Maine agencies including the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. These changes also reflect the recommendations of authoritative medical and other professionals, including the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, who understand that diverse gender identities and expressions are normal and positive variations of human experience.”

The roll out of the finalized rule follows a process that included a public hearing in March and a public comment period this spring, in which GLAD participated, and will apply to amending gender markers on other important records including marriage and death certificates.

Individuals seeking additional information or assistance in amending gender markers on identification documents are encouraged to reach out to the Projekt ID, operated by GLAD, Ropes & Gray and Goodwin. The ID Project pairs transgender individuals across New England with attorneys offering free and confidential assistance with gender marker and name changes.

Read GLAD’s public comment on the rule.

Click here for more on the ID Project.

Reforming Maine’s Juvenile Justice System

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2/27/2020: GLAD Civil Rights Project Director Mary L Bonauto submitted testimony in support of LR 3255, An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Juvenile Justice System Advisory Assessment and Reinvestment Task Force. This bill would require several measures to safeguard the health and welfare of young people in Maine’s Juvenile justice system, including:

Ending the practice of detaining young people “because there is no parent or other suitable person willing and able to supervise and care for the juvenile” by repealing 15 MRSA §3203, §4 (C)(2).
Reducing the number of detained and committed youth in the juvenile justice system according to specified benchmarks
Requiring participation with the Maine Juvenile Justice Systems Advisory Assessment & Reinvestment Taskforce in efforts to redirect youth into community-based justice services instead of detention and incarceration
Providing annual reporting by the Department of Corrections through 2024 on specific efforts, successes and challenges, numbers and outcomes and other metrics

Mary Bonauto said in her testimony, “As a member of the Maine Juvenile Justice Systems Advisory Assessment & Reinvestment Taskforce, I am pleased to see this bill take steps forward on some of the priorities identified in the Maine Juvenile Justice System Assessment (2020) that came from that process.”

Mary’s full testimony can be found Tutaj.

The Maine Juvenile Justice System Assessment report is Tutaj.

Read the full text of LR 3255 Tutaj.