EDITORIAL: Susan Collins has been a longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights. Her continued support is more important than ever.

Mar. 9—The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.

Once upon a time, Maine's congressional delegation stood out nationally as a unified, bipartisan voice in support of the Equality Act.

In that bygone era — last year — all four members were cosponsors of this overdue legislation, which would institute federal discrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans. Similar protections have existed in Maine since 2005.

This year, with Democrats controlling both houses of Congress and the White House, the Equality Act would seem to stand a good chance of becoming law. At the very least, it has a better chance of actually being considered in both the House and Senate, as Sen. Mitch McConnell can't let it languish as he has done previously.

The bill has already passed the House, with continued support from both of Maine's Democratic representatives.

"For more than 15 years, Maine has had civil rights protections for our LGBTQ neighbors," Rep. Chellie Pingree pointed out in a Feb. 25 statement. "We've stood together against bigotry and made sure that everyone in our state has equal access to housing, education, credit, employment, and public accommodations."

"This landmark legislation will help make sure that all people are protected from discrimination, wherever they are in our country," Rep. Jared Golden said that same day.

Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, announced his support for the legislation earlier this month.

"This discrimination strikes at the heart of the values of our nation," King said. "Let us come together and pass this bill, so we can take a step closer to truly guaranteeing liberty and justice for all."

King's support was not a surprise, given that he also cosponsored this bill last Congress. It was a very unpleasant surprise, however, that Sen. Susan Collins has so far decided not to cosponsor the Equality Act again.

As the only Senate Republican to cosponsor the Equality Act last Congress, Collins stood out as she stood up for LGBTQ equal protection. That is not the case right now.

If Collins has a good explanation for deciding not to cosponsor this legislation, we've yet to hear her provide it to the public. We asked her office to explain what has changed since last Congress, and what her specific concerns about the Equality Act are. Here's the statement we received:

"Senator Collins is a longtime supporter of LGBTQ rights, and she has repeatedly stood up for the LGBTQ community, including at times when many of her colleagues on both sides of the aisle did not," Collins spokeswoman Annie Clark said. "For example, she opposed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and supported laws to prevent hate crimes. And because of her work leading the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, gay men and women can now serve openly in the U.S. military.

"The Equality Act was a starting point for negotiations, and Senator Collins agreed to introduce it with the agreement that all of the cosponsors would work together to make further changes. Unfortunately, they were unwilling to work out those changes.

"Senator Collins supports ensuring fairness and equal treatment of all Americans, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, and she is considering all possible options to do so, including introducing her own bill."

That's a long statement, but specifics about Collins' policy concerns are nowhere to be found. We've yet to see Collins state publicly what she would like to see changed in the Equality Act or how her potential own bill might be different. Until she does, we don't fault LGBTQ Mainers ( Democrat, Republican or any other political affiliation) for wondering why she supported the Equality Act during an election year but now appears to be moving away from it.

We want to see this bill become law, and given the 60-vote filibuster threshold and the 50-50 split in the Senate, we recognize that passage would almost surely require some negotiation to win the support of at least 10 Republicans. If that is what Collins is trying to accomplish, then great. But we're far from convinced at the moment.

Collins sent an especially bad signal Saturday with a vote on an amendment to the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 recovery package that has been working its way through Congress. That amendment, authored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, would have prohibited Title II federal funds from going to schools that allow any transgender women or girls to participate in sports for women or girls. Collins supported the vote on this radical and misguided amendment, but thankfully it did not pass.

"Senator Collins has been a leading advocate for transgender rights, and also for girls' and women's sports," Clark said in a statement after that vote. "She believes this is a complex issue that needs further study."

If Collins is looking for a deliberative approach to transgender participation in school athletics, it would seem that the Maine Principals' Association has already found one.

The MPA "believes that all students should have the opportunity to participate in MPA activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, unless such participation would result in an unfair athletic advantage or would present an unacceptable risk of injury to other student athletes," according to its eligibilty rules for transgender student athlete participation.

So when Collins voted to advance this amendment, she took the extreme step of backing a proposal that would have withheld Title II federal funds to any Maine school that follows MPA policy.

Here in Bangor alone, the school funding in question is more than $320,000 per year. According to the Bangor School Department, that money is shared between the public and private schools in the area and the public schools use the money for class size reduction in the primary grades.

We asked Collins' office if they shared our understanding of the amendment and MPA policy, and whether prohibiting these kinds of funds is what Collins would like to see in the name of "further study." We didn't get an answer to that question.

We appreciate that Collins has been there for our LGBTQ neighbors in the past. She needs to be there for them now.