(The Lion) — A Republican in the Maine House of Representatives can no longer vote on legislation – for now.

The Maine House of Representatives voted to censure Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, this week after she called out a transgender-identifying athlete on Facebook for winning two girls’ indoor track and field state championships last week.

The Democrat-controlled House voted 75-70 along party lines to pass a censure resolution against the lawmaker. It bars her from speaking on the House floor or casting votes until she apologizes for her post.

Libby has no plans to apologize.

“It’s a remarkable double standard as there are public photos of this individual in many places, on social media and even some posted by his school, and so yes, this post went viral, but this was an individual who participated in a public event, who publicly stood on a podium and accepted a championship medal that rightfully belonged to the girls standing on the second-place spot,” she told Fox News.

Libby prepared a seven-page speech about protecting women’s sports that she planned to read before the censure vote. However, Democrats consistently turned her microphone off, making it impossible for her to deliver it.

“I was completely unable, from my first sentence, to get a word out before the other side was shutting me down,” she said.

Yet, the Democrats let House Majority Leader Matt Moonen, D-Portland, condemn Libby on the floor.

“She has irreparably broken the trust that has been placed in her as an elected official serving in this House of Representatives,” Moonen said. “This institution and all of Maine deserve better.”

First Amendment rights?

Libby told Fox News she has a plan to regain her voting and speaking privileges without apologizing. However, she did not disclose her plan. It’s unclear if Libby will file a lawsuit.

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) lead counsel for government affairs Tyler Coward criticized the Democrats for censuring Libby, calling it government overreach.

“The First Amendment prevents the legislature from stripping a member’s ability to vote because of her constitutionally protected speech,” Coward told The Lion via email. “The legislature can formally reprimand its members, even for speech that is constitutionally protected, but they cannot then take the next step of removing their powers.”

Libby expressed opposition to Greely High junior Katie Spencer, a transgender-identifying male, winning two Maine Principals Association Class B girls’ indoor track state championships last week in a Facebook post. Her post has over 100,000 reactions. Spencer won the pole vault (10 feet, 6 inches) event and a team state title; Greely won the team state title by one point, and the 10 points Spencer got for winning the pole vault event was the difference-maker.

“Two years ago, John tied for 5th place in boys pole vault,” Libby wrote in the original post. “Tonight, ‘Katie’ won 1st place in the girls’ Maine State Class B Championship.”

The post featured pictures of Spencer on the podium in boys’ track in 2024 and girls’ track in 2025.

Libby later clarified in an edited post that the boys’ track picture was from 2024, not 2023.

Spencer was the second transgender girls’ track athlete from Maine to win a state championship.

Maine Coast Waldorf junior Soren Stark-Chessa won the MPA Class C outdoor girls’ track state championship in the 800-meter as a sophomore last June. Spencer and Stark-Chessa could repeat as state champs during the spring 2025 season.

Other lawmakers censured

Lawmakers have been censured for social media posts in the past, but never for taking a stance against males competing in women’s sports.

Notably, the U.S. House of Representatives censured Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, for reposting an anime-style video of himself killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, in 2021; the U.S. House censured Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, in 2023 for her social media posts supporting Palestine in the aftermath of the October 7 attack by Hamas against Israel; and the Utah legislature censured state Board of Education member Natalie Cline last year for falsely claiming on social media that a teenage girl was a male.

A January 2025 New York Times poll found that 79% of Americans oppose letting transgender athletes compete in women’s sports, while only 18% support it.