Mat Gilson

Hi gay! Woke is back all across the country, especially in New England. Election day yielded two major wins in Maine, as the Republican referendum to gut access to absentee ballot voting failed, and a red flag gun law passed in the wake of the Lewiston mass shooting two years ago. In this spirit, I wanted to touch on some Maine specific happenings to keep the woke agenda going strong. 

Firstly I wanted to address the elephant in the room, or I guess the Nazi symbolism that the elephant had tattooed on his chest. Graham Platner, despite the controversy, is going to have my vote. This is because, as a person who has walked into the tattoo parlor and picked something random off the wall, I find his story entirely plausible. Do I think its fucking weird and gross? Totally. However, he had it covered, and none of the history that has been dug up about him indicates an ideological tie to naziism to me. Speaking of his reddit history: I like that he had a little angry phase. Its very teenage girl coded to get online and say that rural republicans are stupid and evil. It’s the unnuanced, aggressive take I would expect of someone trying to shed military conditioning in favor of flat out communism. Plus, he pissed all over Dick Cheney’s grave on the internet, and I think thats cool as fuck. 

Maine is in the unique position of holding swing Senate and House seats. Given Jared Golden’s recent decision not to run for reelection, it is more than possible that Paul LePage, noted asshole and former Maine governor, will take the district. Negativity is my instinct, but Golden stepping back is an opportunity. A candidate could run who actively opposes Donald Trump, at the very least. Golden has a rocky history as a democrat, and I think that’s why he has continued to hold on to this northern, rural district. But the anti establishment energy that continues to win Trump that district is the same energy that Graham Platner is running on. Anti establishment sentiment can be harnessed by the far right and far left, and with the right packaging I could see a Platner-esque candidate standing a chance up there. So if you know anyone with that energy up in the County, maybe start planting that seed. 

In regards to the ongoing SNAP crisis, Gov. Mills has donated 1 million dollars from the state contingency fund to Good Shepherd Food bank. This organization has locations throughout the state and is allocating extra resources to support the exponential increase in need. Consider donating, or find the resources you need at their website. 

This last point is the most important item on my gay agenda. At polling places across the state, a petition was being pushed to “protect Girls Sports in Maine.” Several bills with this intention have failed to pass in the Maine legislature, and now conservative groups are resorting to petitioning to have the issue voted on as a referendum. The proposed bill would require students to use facilities and participate on sports teams based on their “biological sex assigned at birth.” The name of the petition underplays the scope of the bill, as its aim is to discriminate against transgender students throughout the school in their use of different restroom and locker room facilities, as well as limit the sports teams that they may be allowed to play on. 

The population of transgender students in Maine is less than 4%, and the population of transgender student athletes in Maine this year is 2. Not 2%, two individuals. The Department of Justice, who is suing Maine at the President’s request over this very issue, has cited as many as THREE individual instances of transgender athletes participating in girls’ sports in Maine. The scale of this “issue” is unbelievably small. The lives of these children are being ruined because of the egos of pedophilic grown men. If you come across this petition, do not be tricked into believing that it has anything at all to do with girls’ sports. It only has to do with the discrimination and systemic elimination of transgender people from public life. I do believe wholeheartedly that if this issue did come to a vote, the people of Maine would not allow it to pass, so maybe that’s something.

So anyway girlie feel free to prove people like Jared Golden right: politicians maybe should be so concerned about the threat of political violence that they take drastic measures to avoid being victimized! And if you see some creep trying to get signatures for a bill that wants to look down kids’ pants before they enter a bathroom, you should feel empowered to make that person’s day really really bad in whatever way you see fit. 

Stay safe and stay woke,

Mat