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A bill to prohibit the doxing of minors should not be necessary. Adults, no matter how strong their views and feelings, should not be harassing and intimidating children. But, in an age where internet trolls and misplaced anger hold enormous power, even children are now the targets of outsized hatred and harassment.
Last month, state Rep. Laurel Libby, a Republican from Auburn, posted photos of a high school athlete who had won a high school state championship in pole vault. Libby identified the athlete, whom she circled in the photos, as transgender. She used the student’s championship to rail against transgender students competing in girls’ sports, which unleashed a wave of both criticism and support for Libby, who was censured by the Maine House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats, for her ongoing social media posts about the student.
This high-profile instance of online harassment apparently made its way to the White House as President Donald Trump used the underlying issue to threaten Gov. Janet Mills. He essentially demanded that she ban transgender girls from girls sports teams, or risk losing federal funding.
That exchange launched a series of investigations, funding shifts, and demands of Maine from the Trump administration.
Within days of Libby’s initial post, security was heightened at Greely High School, where the athlete is a student. The district’s superintendent Jeffrey Porter said in a message to the school community that the attention has resulted in “a flurry of online postings and communications, including some that have been a concern to members of the school community.”
Earlier this month, dozens of people from across the state submitted testimony in support of a bill that would prohibit the doxing of minors. No one spoke in opposition to the bill.
Although the incident involving the Greely student is the most recent example of the harassment of students in Maine, it is far from the only example. Students, parents and educators told lawmakers of threats, harassment and vile comments directed at young Mainers who had spoken out on a variety of issues, often transgender rights and book bans.
This harassment typically has a common theme — to silence particular views and, in many cases, to try to drive the students who hold them out of public view, sometimes even out of existence. Like President Trump’s executive order trying to decree that there are only two sexes, online harassers often suggest that transgender young Americans are delusional and that they need to be fixed or punished into conforming with the harassers’ view of gender norms.
It shouldn’t be hard to understand that tormenting children is wrong. It is especially wrong when we know that transgender youth are at much higher risk of self harm and suicide than their cis gender peers. These children, all children, deserve and need our love and support. They should never be the targets of harassment and attempts to minimize their humanity.
Maine Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage made the point well during a recent WGAN interview in which he criticized the Maine Principals’ Association for its transgender-related policy but also called for opponents of that policy to have “a dose of humanity.”
“Some of the kids that are being put in the middle of these controversies are dealing with a lot,” Savage said. “I think if you’re a young person who is struggling with identity, I don’t think we need to be putting you at the center of anything and making you a focal point for an entire state or nation.”
It shouldn’t take a law to make this true.