Maine Democrats will not move from a bad position. They are holding true to the sunk-cost fallacy.

Testimony was given for the Legislature to enact “An Act to Designate School Sports Participation and Facilities by Sex” without a vote of the people in November, which it did not.

The proponents of the measure spoke kindly of the struggles of children who do not exhibit culturally expected gender traits, and said they should be allowed to do so and be accepted, but that allowance should not negate sex-based protections and spaces, which have been recently cemented in by the highest court in the U.K. and now the International Olympic Committee, and likely by the U.S. Supreme Court this spring.

The opponents have empathy and kindness, which are to be applauded, but they have been fed a lie and they cannot shake it. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health and even U.S. medical associations still lead with the pending epidemic in suicide by trans children if we change course at all.

The publication of the Cass Review in Britain should have quashed that argument; its primary conclusion was there were not high-quality controlled studies to support youth transition, social or medical.

Finally, we now have a multi-year study from a Western democracy, Finland, that not only refutes but contradicts the “would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son” lie and concludes mental health outcomes are worse after “affirmative care” steps are taken.

Can the party that says “follow the science” live up to its own mantra?

Michael Rappaport
Kennebunk