Maine Rep Who Was Censured for Posting About Transgender Athlete Sues House Speaker

Moira Gleason | March 12, 2025

When a lawmaker in Maine posted a photo of a male high school athlete winning a girls pole vault state championship, her House colleagues silenced her. Now, she’s taking legal action. 

Less than two weeks after Maine Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, posted the photo on Facebook, the Maine House of Representatives voted 75-70 to censure her for posting the photo of the minor, meaning she can no longer speak or vote in the Legislature until she apologizes.  

The post included photos of the male athlete from both a boys pole vault competition a couple of years ago and the girls pole vault championship this year. “Two years ago, John tied for 5th place in boys pole vault,” Libby said in the post. “Tonight, ‘Katie’ won 1st place in the girls Maine State Class B Championship.” ...

Libby told The Daily Signal she will not apologize for the post. She filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Maine Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat, for the censure, claiming it violates her First Amendment right of free speech as well as her equal protection rights and the guarantee clause of Article IV of the Constitution, which protects the basic rights of political participation within state governments. 

‘Medical aid in dying’ Bill Fails in Nevada Legislature

 By McKenna Ross 

Las Vegas Review-Journal (TNS), Updated May 16, 2025 

A proposal to give some terminally ill patients in Nevada access to life-ending medications failed to move forward in the Legislature on Friday.

Assembly Bill 346 — which would have set up a legal framework for competent and willing terminally ill patients to self-administer life-ending drugs — has had an uncertain future all session despite bipartisan support. A similar bill made it to the governor’s desk in 2023 but was vetoed.

Gov. Joe Lombardo [pictured here] said in April he would not sign the bill this session, either. In his veto message, the Republican governor attributed his discomfort in signing the bill to medical advancements and the lack of similar policies in most other states.

Still, the bill passed out of theAssembly, 23-19, on April 17. It did not receive a hearing in the state Senate. Friday is the second house passage deadline, when bills without exemptions must be referred out of committee to be considered for a floor vote next week.

The bill had a hearing scheduled on Friday, but it was canceled. Assembly member Joe Dalia, D-Henderson, said he and co-sponsor Danielle Gallant, R-Las Vegas, kept the bill moving forward after the governor’s statement because they hoped to amend it to reach something favorable to the governor. But they realized they would not have that done in time for Friday’s deadline, he said.

Utah Becomes First State to Ban Fluoride in Public Drinking Water

Utah became the first state to ban the addition of fluoride to public drinking water after Gov. Spencer Cox [pictured right] signed the law late Thursday night. The ban will take effect on May 7.

Rep. Stephanie Gricius, who sponsored the bill, said in an email to The Defender that she was thrilled the governor signed it. She said:

“The proper role of government is to provide safe, clean drinking water, not mass medicate the public. While we have banned it from being added to our water systems, we have also increased access to fluoride tablets through the pharmacies so any Utahn who wishes to take it may. But it will now be a decision each individual can make for themselves.”

The new law bans water fluoridation, but also gives pharmacists new authority to prescribe fluoride supplement pills. Typically, such pills can be prescribed only by a dentist or physician.  

“What Utah has accomplished is historic, a huge step forward,” said Rick North, board member of the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), which won a landmark ruling in a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the agency’s failure to appropriately regulate the chemical.

What About Providing Aid in Living?

Yesterday, the New York State Assembly voted to pass legislation (A136/S138), the Medical Aid in Dying Act, to legalize state-sanctioned suicide [and euthanasia] for those diagnosed with a terminal illness. We strongly urge the New York State Senate to reject this legislation and we urge you to contact your state senators and ask them to vote against this legislation. Click here to contact your state senator.  

Proceeding down this path would be both a moral and practical failure, violating the sanctity of life and leading to a further erosion in the health and well-being of society’s most vulnerable.

At a time that New York State is struggling to address the spiraling numbers of “deaths of despair” resulting from alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicides, this legislation is a giant step in the wrong direction. 

New York Talking Points, Including Commentary by Dawn Eskew & Margaret Dore

Dear Angela & Senator Palumbo, 

In attachments are the talking points I referred to you in our conversation this morning. I can not stress enough to urge everyone on our side to stay clear away from bringing up religion, moral theology, prolife, and things like that.

The problem is the proposed Bill is a Bad Policy Bill, and the reasons pointed out should be our mantra.

One can be for the concept, but not these bills. (2025 #A136 & #S138).

I will be dropping off to your office , as discussed, our brochure which contains all of the short bullet points.

Most Sincerely, 

Dawn C . Eskew1.631.487.7578

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My friend Margaret Dore [pictured above], who is copied here, provided me with four publications, which may be of help.  Please see below.

1)

Margaret Dore Featured by Hope Australia

Vote No! on S. 136: New York Should Not Be Considering Assisted Suicide When So Many People Struggle to Live.

By Lisa Blumberg (pictured right)  and Not Dead Yet.

It is disturbing that at a time when the healthcare system is so broken and so many people struggle to get the care and practical support, they need that New York would want to try repeatedly pass legislation which would legalize doctor assisted suicide. The state has shown good judgment in rejecting the idea before and should reject it now.

The pandemic has made evident the deadly health care disparities that people of color, older people and persons with disabilities have always been subjected to. Any law which enables doctors to write lethal prescriptions at the request of people deemed to have six months or less to live, as this bill would, increases risk for devalued patients.

Despite common misconceptions, uncontrollable pain is not a primary reason that people turn to assisted suicide. Data indicates that people often request lethal prescriptions due to perceived lessening of autonomy, or feelings of being burden. As Cliff Perez, a disability rights activist, states, “these reasons are… existential or disability related and ought to be addressed with quality, multidisciplinary care, not death.” It is not so much how individuals view living with limitations caused by illness or disability, but society’s stigma and failure to provide practical supports to address such limitations.