By Rev. Dr. Kharma R. Amos, Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick, Maine 
There are children in our community who ration their water-intake.
Not because their families can’t afford it. Not because of drought or disaster. They ration their water-intake so that they can make it through the school day without having to use the bathroom. Because using the bathroom has become a source of fear.
Let that sink in.
As a minister, I have been honored to serve alongside trans and non-binary people — children, adults, and elders — for over two decades. What I can tell you is this: the resilience our society currently requires of our trans beloveds is not something to celebrate. It is something to lament. No child should need to develop that kind of resilience. No parent should have to sit their child down and explain that perhaps sitting out on team sports — their favorite thing in the world, the activity their siblings and friends enjoy without a second thought — might be the safer choice.
And yet, here we are.
LD 2239, the anti-trans bill currently before Maine’s Judiciary Committee, is being sold to us as protection — specifically, as protection for girls in school sports. I want to name clearly what it actually is: it is direct harm, masquerading in the language of care.
The truth that its proponents do not want us to examine too closely is that gender policing endangers every child, not only trans and non-binary students. There is no single way to be a girl, and there is certainly no single way to play sports “like a girl.” Any girl who is too tall, too strong, too fast, or simply too good at what she does may find herself subjected to scrutiny under this legislation. The very students the bill claims to protect will be among those it harms.
We should also notice who is funding this effort: not Maine families, not Maine schools, not Maine coaches or athletes who have raised any urgent concern. This bill is funded by an out-of-state billionaire. It does not rise from any authentic community need. It rises from a political agenda that has chosen our children as its bargaining chip.
Every child in Maine deserves to belong. Every child deserves to use the facilities, to play on the team, to learn — alongside their peers — the lessons that sports can teach about teamwork, perseverance, self-confidence, and grace in both winning and losing. These are not privileges to be earned by conforming to someone else’s idea of who you are. They ought to be open to every child who attends school.
This may be a ballot measure that we have to engage at the polls later this year, and we should get ready for it. I am asking you to say clearly and publicly (and not only when it’s popular to do so): We see our trans and non-binary children. We love them. And we will not allow them to be used as pawns in someone else’s political game.
Leave our trans beloveds alone.