GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) issued the following statement on the new ballot initiativeto remove sexual orientation and gender identity from Maine’s Human Rights Act:

“This latest effort to support discrimination against Maine’s LGBTQ people will be found profoundly distasteful by the vast majority of Maine voters,” said Mary L. Bonauto, GLAD’s Civil Rights Project Director and a resident of Portland. “I understand some people remain uncomfortable with LGBTQ people, but the Maine way is about decency toward all. This initiative contradicts those basic values.”

The Maine Human Rights Act was amended to include sexual orientation and gender identity in 2005 and voters strongly supported it against an attempted repeal-by-ballot that same year.