Fight to stop Maine's 'transgender trafficking bill' is coming down to the wire

Parental rights advocates in Maine are campaigning to kill an LGBT activist bill that would allow the state to take custody of children whose families refuse to subject them to sex-change mutilations and other irreversible medical interventions. The legislation, LD 1735, would also effectively have Maine disregard the rights of parents in all other states and bar officials from reuniting runaway children supposedly seeking confusion-affirming treatments with their out-of-state families.

While the bill's interstate implications might ultimately set the stage for a battle before the Supreme Court, opponents of Democratic state Rep. Laurie Osher's so-called "Act to Safeguard Gender-affirming Health Care" are concerned that multitudes of children will be transmogrified and trafficked in the interim — all ostensibly for the benefit of leftist ideologues, predators, pharmacists, and willing surgeons.

Alvin Lui, president of the parental rights advocacy group Courage is a Habit, stressed to Blaze News this week that there is hope yet to stop LD 1735 from advancing.

Lui indicated the Democrat-controlled state House and Senate will likely pass the bill if given the chance — even though organizations similarly captive to LGBT ideology like the World Health Organization are beginning to openly admit there is a dearth of evidence to support so-called gender-affirming care for children and adolescents.

However, a judiciary committee must first decide to advance LD 1735.

That hearing was initially scheduled for last week but is now set for 3:00 p.m. on Thursday.

"We stopped this bill in Maine last year around this time and they quietly tried to sneak it in this year again. They almost snuck it by us," said Lui. "And we brought a lot of heat."

Lui credits the attention his organization helped direct last week to LD 1735 and the resultant backlash for prompting the delay of the hearing. The official claim was that the hearing was postponed due to bad weather.

"The first reason [for the delay] was that seven days is an eternity online, as you know, in the public, in the political sphere. They're hoping that at least 1,000 stories will distract people by the time it comes around again," said Lui. "Secondly, it gives them time to reach out to the transgender hordes to give them some cover. Get emails from these transgender cults so that they look like they have support from places like EqualityMaine, which is the most radical transgender cult organization."

While advocates for the bill might be better positioned this week, so are its opponents.

Courage is a Habit, conservatives, and concerned parents in the state previously faced a squeeze when attempting to get the word out. The delay has, however, provided them with ample runway to get a concerted pressure campaign off the ground.

The parental rights group has been imploring Americans in and outside Maine to seize this last opportunity to advise the committee members — state Sens. Eric Brakey (R), Anne Carney (D), and Donna Bailey (D) and Reps. Matt Moonen (D), Amy Kuhn (D), Adam Lee (D), Stephen Moriarty (D), and Erin Sheehan (D) — against giving their blessings to legislation that might separate countless children from their parents over a "social contagion."

Courage is a Habit has simplified things by providing sample opposition letters and the email addresses of committee members on its website. Messages can be sent until Thursday, but Lui indicated that unless sent by Wednesday evening, it is unlikely they'll be read.

LD 1735 resembles similar laws and executive orders in several other states, which have been characterized as a "kidnapping" bills. Lui alternatively figures LD 1735 for a "transgender trafficking bill."

In addition to pushing confused children into the foster care system where their parents will be precluded from rescuing them, Lui suggested the bill would lead to interstate trafficking — by strangers who want to ferry kids to Maine for irreversible surgeries and for strangers who want to abduct kids on the pretense of ferrying them to Maine for such interventions.

"Schools have already told these kids that their parents are unsafe and abusive and that their parents 'don't love you and that they're out to hurt you because they don't see you for who you really are,'" said Lui. "Because they've already set the kids up to look at other people as their family, think about how easy it will be for a sex trafficker to go up to a girl, 14, 15, 16, 13, whatever, and say, 'I see you for who you are.' Call them by their right pronoun. Get them the right clothes. And say, 'I'll take you to Maine so that you can get the health care that you need. ... I'm your family now.'"

"This bill is a sex trafficker's dream come true," added Lui.

In the absence of criticism or pressure, Lui suggested the Democratic committee members might support LD 1735 reflexively because it comports with one of what he regards as the Democratic Party's animating theorems: critical race theory and queer theory. However, he intimated Democrats are unlikely to be so automatic and uncritical in cosigning the "trafficking bill" in the face of significant public outcry, hence his hope for critical mass in the pressure campaign under way.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!