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Ron King lives in Penobscot.
As a gay man, I am scared and sad about what is happening in this country. The Trump administration is moving fast to cancel rights of the LGBTQ+ community, rights we have worked hard for over many decades.
I am 81, and I grew up in rural Michigan, where I was considered a criminal simply for having an intimate relationship with another man. The American Psychiatric Association considered me and other members of the LGBTQ+ community mentally ill until 1973. I remember how it felt to be fearful; I remember the need to keep who I was secret.
But change came. Maine removed its sodomy laws in 1975, and the U.S. Supreme Court declared all sodomy laws unconstitutional in 2003. Although 27 states still do not have civil rights protections for the LGBTQ+ community, Maine passed laws protecting LGBTQ+ civil rights in 2005. And in 2012, Maine became the first state to pass a citizen referendum authorizing same-sex marriage.
Now, however, the Trump administration has declared war against the transgender community, and it is moving fast. It has removed “gender ideology” and LGBTQ+ resources and health information from federal websites and communications. It is changing rules that protect trans men and women in education and government, it is once again banning transgender people from serving in the military, and it is prohibiting trans people from using any gender other than that assigned at birth on federal documents.
According to the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism and GLAAD, more than 700 incidents of violence and threats targeting LGBTQ+ people occurred in 2023, including murder, harassment, assault and vandalism. Three hundred and fifty transgender people were killed in 2024.
The right-wing hate machine seems to sanction this violence, and with the Trump administration’s assault on transgender people, it will only increase.
If you think it can’t or won’t happen here, remember this: A large number of countries on this planet still criminalize LGBTQ+ people. In some, it is still legal to kill us.
Today, it is the rights and very lives of transgender people that are under attack, but who is next?
I am asking our allies in the heterosexual community to fight back with us. You helped us achieve our rights. Now we ask you to help us protect them. And we can all start by denouncing the hateful, cruel and dangerous bigotry of the Trump administration.