The current presidential administration is intent on undermining the deserved rights of LGBTQ+ individuals, rights that have been scrupulously advocated for by LGBTQ+ elders for decades. In just the first year of leadership, the administration renounced many nondiscrimination policies, and attempted to ban transgender individuals from serving in the military. This is just a sampling of the mechanisms being employed to undermine human rights.

The threat of regression feels tangible to the LGBTQ+ community.

The confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court would perpetuate this threat by emboldening the inequitable voice that has been cultivated by the current administration. Kavanaugh has lacked commentary on marriage equality. For the LGBTQ+ community, a population that has been historically unprotected by the legal system, such silence is powerful and troubling.

LGBTQ+ older adults have ruthlessly fought to counter discrimination throughout their entire lives, and are deserving of affirming social and medical services as they age. This group of elders is particularly vulnerable to marginalization rooted in religious theory, a form of oppression that is perpetuated by religious exemptions designed to sanction conservative Christian beliefs. Brett Kavanaugh favors such religious exemptions.

Maine voters have repeatedly stood with the LGBTQ+ community and demanded protection from the harmful impact of discrimination. We were among the first to approve marriage equality through popular vote, in addition to consistently upholding LGBT nondiscrimination laws at the ballot box.

On behalf of SAGE Maine, we hope that in an effort to preserve the sacred human rights of the LGBTQ+ community at large, Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court is denied. We hope that our government protects Maine LGBTQ+ elders from the oppression that they have unjustly endured and fought throughout their lives. We hope that our government speaks in alignment with Mainers: We have no tolerance for discrimination.

Hilary Thibodeau

SAGE Maine;

master of social work student, University of Maine

Portland

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