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As a University of Maine student and a native of northern Penobscot County, I’m outraged at how state and federal leaders have been treating young people — namely trans youth and college students — as political pawns.
The Trump Administration’s recent threat to pull federal funding from the University of Maine over a very specific policy disagreement with Gov. Janet Mills is, I believe, an irrational abuse of power. The governor is following state law.
People can disagree with that if they’d like — that’s democracy. But for the president to respond by trying to freeze or pull funding from Maine students is not a principled stand for something. It’s punitive and harmful.
At the same time, bills are moving through the Maine Legislature that would strip away protections for trans and gender nonconforming people.
These conversations often get reduced to emotionally charged rhetoric and headlines, but I believe it’s important to remind ourselves that we are almost always talking about kids — often very young — who didn’t feel safe under the status quo and are simply asking to use the bathroom without fear or shame. That’s it — something so basic.
How we have this discussion is unproductive. We’ve turned to dehumanizing people through cruel generalizations or public humiliation.
We don’t have to agree on everything to agree that targeting children or using the state’s public college students as collateral damage is not the way forward. These actions are divisive, unnecessary, and out of step with the values I believe Mainers hold dear. We should be focused on making our state more inclusive and supportive, not less. And that starts by remembering the real people at the center of our debates.
Keegan Tripp
Winn