Editor’s note: This week, we’re reprinting some of our best stories from the past year. In this piece, originally published in October, Maine legislator Laurel Libby recounts her decision to no longer remain silent about boys participating in girls’ sports.

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There may be no state legislator more popular at The Daily Wire than Laurel Libby.

She took a bold stand for girls’ sports in Maine and refused to budge. But it wasn’t always that way.

As Libby explains, she once failed to stand strong for what was right. Never again. — The Daily Wire

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America’s founders appropriately recognized freedom of speech as the most fundamental right for a flourishing republic. But in today’s America, telling the truth carries a cost.

From social media bans to government censorship to silencing dissent inside our statehouses, the message is clear: if you dare to speak the truth, you will pay a price.

I witnessed this firsthand in Maine’s Democrat-controlled state House, where I was stripped of my right to speak for the people of Maine as their elected representative simply for highlighting biological differences between boys and girls in a state competition.

And the problem is getting worse, not better. Without a renewed commitment to our founding ideals, our society may become free in theory, but authoritarian in practice.

My experience in Maine began in February with a viral social media post. A biological male, who had placed fifth in the boys’ competition the year prior, won the girls’ state pole vault championship. Seeing his female competitor relegated to second place broke my heart.

I could not remain silent.

I posted two publicly available photos side by side. One showed the athlete finishing fifth in the boys’ competition one year; the other showed him taking gold in the girls’ competition the next. Official results had already been available for all to see, but this picture made the unfairness of the situation crystal clear.

Girls in Maine, and across the country, were being forced to compete on unequal terms – not only to justify a political cause, but to signal obedience to an ideology that punishes anyone who questions it.

And punished I was.

The Maine House Speaker demanded I delete my post. When I refused, I was stripped of my right to speak or vote in the Legislature. Unless and until I issued a formal apology, I would remain barred from representing the nearly 9,000 constituents who elected me.

This wasn’t the first time legislative leadership in Maine used procedural tools to suppress dissent. In May of 2021, the Democratic legislative leadership issued a mask mandate, solely for the State House, after Governor Janet Mills had lifted the state mask mandate.

As a result, Mainers were denied their First Amendment right to assemble, to petition their government, and to speak freely, unless they traded a piece of their liberty.

I knew it was wrong, and alongside five colleagues, I walked in without a mask.

In response, the Speaker stripped us of our committee assignments and barred us from voting. I agonized over what to do, but in the end, I put a face shield back on, telling myself it was my duty to vote for my constituents.

But the truth is I failed to stand strong in defense of the First Amendment. And that failure taught me that when you give in to fear and intimidation, it only encourages more of both.

This year, I chose not to make the same mistake.

Now, in February, I was confronted with a choice again: to give in or keep fighting. For Maine, for our girls, and for our First Amendment, I chose to fight.

I filed suit against the Legislature after they barred me for exercising my right to speak truthfully about protecting girls’ sports. And the Supreme Court ruled in my favor and restored my vote!

It was, by any normal standard, the right outcome. But it should never have been necessary. An elected official was forced to file a lawsuit to fulfill her duty to the people of Maine, all because she took a stand for women and girls.

These are the things of totalitarian governments, not the United States.

We still talk about the First Amendment as though it protects us in practice as well as in theory. But in much of American life, the real barriers to speech are procedural, reputational and cultural. They come from norms that shift depending on the issue at hand and the politics of the speaker.

When Charlie Kirk was assassinated, I was in Washington, DC. I called home to tell my older children, and my teenager’s first question stopped me in my tracks: “Mom, are you going to stop speaking up?” Without hesitation, I answered: “No. Absolutely not.”

If we stay silent now, we surrender the foundation of liberty. If we bow to intimidation, we hand our children a future where truth is unwelcome and freedom is conditional.

This is not someone else’s fight. It is ours. Parents, teachers, students, pastors, lawmakers, citizens – every one of us has a role to play in protecting the space to speak truthfully, even when it costs us.

This moment is where we stand to lose, or gain, the most. The only way we lose is if we make the choice to silence ourselves.

We cannot be silent. We must speak. We must stand. There is too much at stake to do otherwise.

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Laurel Libby is a member of the House of Representatives in Maine.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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