News & Commentary

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation. 

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

It used to be just LGB (Lesbian Gay Bisexual). Now the official acronym is LGBTQIA, a veritable alphabet soup of different ways to identify oneself by gender or by sexual orientation. I must admit I had to look up what some of those letters represented, notably the 'QIA' part, and according to my research this rainbow of letters (the new ROY G BIV if you will) stands for Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Questioning/Queer Intersex and Asexual. Each term is simultaneously a separate category with specific criteria or no category at all. Conceivably you can apply only one term to your body, your sexual preference or state of mind, no terms at all or maybe even as many as four at a time. And the bevy of new terminology to describe various forms of gender expression or sexual orientation is growing daily. The University California - San Diego has kindly created something of a dictionary of LGBTQIA words for those feeling as confused as I was.

Last night I had dinner with friends of mine -- a biracial couple with two beautiful biracial children.  We started discussing racism in Maine and across the country.  We agreed that in fifty years since the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, we've made tremendous progress toward the goals of racial equality and justice.  The presidency of Barack Obama sends a powerful message to every black child that someday he could be President too.  At the same time, the death of Trayvon Martin sends an equally powerful message to mothers and fathers of black children that their sons could be one of the many black youth who are statistically more likely to be victims of violence than white children.  We still encounter racism in our communities and our systems.  Structural  inequalities persist including racial profiling and the terrible problem of over-incarceration.  Mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow as our country locks up more people in total and per capita than any other country, and one in three black men are likely to spend time in prison or jail at some point.  Even in Maine, the least racially diverse state in the country, blacks are twice as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, even though marijuana usage rates are the same. 

With a new school year upon us, the ACLU of Maine is eager to begin our work educating students about the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. Last year we reached 41 schools in all 16 counties, with more than 1,650 students taking part in our workshops. We’re hoping to top that this year, and as we’ve done in the past we’ll be kicking things off with a series of Bill of Rights Student Conferences this fall.

August 28th marks the 50th Anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedoms. This week we are honoring some of the people who made the dream a reality in images and quotes. 

Each Friday, we’ll bring you updates on the latest civil liberties news from Maine and the nation. 

Thursday morning, Chelsea Manning came out as a transgender woman. Following her announcement, a military spokesman stated that the Army will not provide gender affirming healthcare for Ms. Manning, which raises significant constitutional concerns. The national ACLU writes:

One of the ACLU's largest and most pressing issues is the problem of overincarceration, and we are focused on criminal justice reform and the reduction of recidivism. Most people interested in such things have heard of the term "the revolving door." This proverbial door symbolizes the perpetual cycle for convicted people through the phases of our flawed justice system: get caught, receive your sentence, do time, leave jail with little financial, emotional or education support, repeat the behavior, etc. This revolving door assures that from the very moment that the judge pronounces you guilty (or even before that) your chances of returning to jail or prison increase by a staggering 43% within the next three years according to a 2011 study. This is simply not an acceptable statistic for a nation, and only contributes to other dismal statistics such as prison costs, unemployment and homelessness. Our judicial system cannot continue as it has, while people continnue to cycle through jails and prisons.