April 9, 2025
Cell Block She: How Maine Lost Its Correctional Funding 248
Maine's transgender policies have cast the state into an unwelcome national spotlight, creating ripple effects that reach from schoolyards to prison cells and ultimately into living rooms of everyday families like mine. The federal government recently pulled $1.5 million in funding from Maine's Department of Corrections over its policy allowing transgender inmates to be housed according to their gender identity rather than biological sex.
At the center of this controversy is a biological male who murdered his parents, now identifying as female and housed in a women's prison. Attorney General Pam Bondi made the federal government's position clear: "We will protect women in prison. We will protect women in sports. We will protect women throughout this country." Meanwhile, Maine's governor – ironically, the state's first female governor – continues implementing policies that fail to protect women and girls.
What makes this policy debate personal for me is how it directly impacts my family. My brother, who has spent over ten years incarcerated and is nearing release, was set to receive four months in a halfway house to help him transition back to society. Due to these funding cuts, his prison sentence has been extended, and his rehabilitation program cut in half. The harsh reality: political decisions about gender identity are having real-world consequences for rehabilitation programs designed to help people rebuild their lives.
The situation mirrors broader concerns throughout the state, including reports that dozens of Maine schools are hiding students' gender plans from parents. When policies prioritize ideology over practical considerations about safety, security, and family involvement, vulnerable populations often pay the price – whether they're women in prisons, girls in sports, or inmates seeking rehabilitation. I firmly support protecting women's safety and opportunities.
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00:00 - Maine's Struggle with Transgender Policies
04:38 - Importance of Community and Common Unity
08:40 - Transgender Athletes in Women's Sports
14:58 - Schools Hiding Gender Plans from Parents
21:28 - The Personal Impact: My Brother's Story
34:46 - Andrew's Case and Maine's Prison Policy
44:59 - Funding Cuts and Governmental Corruption
51:01 - Final Thoughts on Sacrifice for Safety
WEBVTT
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My home state, the state of Maine, continues to be in the national spotlight, and for all the wrong reasons.
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At this point, I really shouldn't be surprised.
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But today on Share the Struggle Podcast, we are going to discuss a transgender murderous incarceration and how it has cost the Maine Department of Corrections $1.5 million in funding, and I share with you the close and personal impact it has on my family.
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Let me tell you something Everybody struggles.
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The difference is some people choose to go through it and some choose to grow through it.
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The choice is completely yours.
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Which one you choose will have a very profound effect on the way you live your life.
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If you find strength in the struggle, then this podcast is for you.
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Do you have a relationship that is comfortable with uncomfortable conversations?
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Uncomfortable conversations challenge you, humble you and they build you.
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When you sprinkle a little time and distance on it, it all makes sense.
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Most disagreements, they stem from our own insecurities.
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You are right where you need to be what it do, what it has did it do.
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Good Lord, almighty, am I so excited to be back with you?
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Oh, it's true, it is damn true.
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How do you do boys and girls, chipmunks and squirrels, how do you do?
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Welcome back to this beautiful podcast, proudly sponsored by Loud Proud American, perfectly precisely accurately named Share the Struggle.
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Because we said time and time again, everybody struggles.
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And the truth is, boys and girls, if you are courageous enough, if you are transparent enough, if you are vulnerable enough to share the shit that you go through, then together we shall grow through those challenges.
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Because there is strength in everybody's story, in everybody's struggle.
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We just need to be bold and beautiful enough to share it.
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And today we are together yet again, sharing another fabulous struggle.
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Okay, this one's going to get personal, it's going to get wild, it's going to go national.
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That's what we have on tap today For episode 248, that means for 248 consecutive weeks we've been gathering together as friends and community Community.
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I like that word y'all.
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I like breaking down the word community To me.
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When I hear community and it's used in the right sense, I like to break it down, cut it in half, chop it up and consider it common unity, community, common unity.
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When we have a common ground and we are gathered together with common sense and common beliefs, all things are possible and anything shall be achieved.
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We are building a beautiful community, a positive tribe with a positive vibe.
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I appreciate each and every one of you that have been tuning in, been listening, been hanging out and jamming out with us since day one.
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If you are an original, if you are an OG, if you're one of my day ones, I acknowledge you and I ask you, wherever you are right now, get your ones up, be acknowledged, be showered with praise and love and appreciation.
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I thank you for being a loyal one from day one.
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If today happens to be your day one, then welcome from day one.
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If today happens to be your day one, then welcome.
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And I appreciate you for taking the time and granting me the opportunity to share some stories with you and I truly hope someday you become one of those loyal ones, one of those day ones.
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If y'all get something good from today's show, something positive from the show, please, please, please let me know.
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Share the show, help it grow.
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That is what we are here to do to grow the community with some common unity.
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Unity that was an old Rick James bit, wasn't it?
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Dave Chappelle show.
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I want to say Unity.
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I think it was.
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Maybe it was Prince, I don't know.
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I don't remember man, but for some reason that one was in the back of my Prince, I don't know, I don't remember man, but for some reason that one was in the back of my head.
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I apologize.
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Things just come to me, okay.
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Noises, impersonations, random twitches they just happen.
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They just come to me, it just happens, okay.
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Just like episodes of the podcast just come to me.
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And it's crazy to me how the dots always tend to connect the sentences just finish each other.
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All right, we finish each other's sentences.
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That's what happens when we're so close and together and share the same menstrual cycle.
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That was awkward, I will admit that was awkward.
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Okay, I started the show off the little B-roll, the intro, the credits of the show by saying Maine, my home, state, me home, okay is continuing to have the national spotlight shed upon thee for all the wrong reasons.
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A few weeks ago, maybe a month ago, we had an episode on here where we talked about our governor going to the White House and embarrassing our state.
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We had an in-depth conversation on how, mind you, our first female governor for the state of Maine refuses to protect females in the state that she represents Because our mind you, first female governor emphasis placed here again on female governor is allowing transgender athletes to compete against girls, allowing transgender athletes to share locker rooms with girls, to make our young, beautiful girls in this state vulnerable, to take away their safety, to rob them of their securities and to take away many opportunities.
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On that episode we discussed how a transgender athlete so this boy who was competing I think it was in cross country or high jump or I don't know what the hell it was, I can't remember now I'm too fired up about it A year previous finished fifth competing against fellow boys in high school, but this year decides I'm a girl and I shall compete against the girls, wins first place, sets records and literally just dominates the competition, as we would expect.
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Now this whole platform has really taken off, let's say it seems to be something that is getting the microscope of mainstream media to really dig on it, because our president signed an executive order which months ago, I discussed on the podcast by saying with great excitement how happy I was, how pleased I was being a new father of a baby girl.
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Yes, being one of those girl dads, I was on here expressing how proud I was to watch our president sign an executive order protecting women's rights, protecting women's sports, surrounded by young women in their jerseys, their soccer uniforms, their softball uniforms, their track and field uniforms, cheerleading outfits, all of these girls surrounding the president as he signs in an executive order protecting women athletes.
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He did that.
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I relished in that.
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We celebrated that.
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We acknowledged that.
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Very quickly after that, a Maine representative notifies Fox News that Maine has a transgender athlete destroying the record books for women's sports here in our state.
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President Trump asked our governor about it and it turns into a pissing match, or shall we say a dick measuring competition at the White House, which results in our excuse of a governor challenging the president and saying I'll see you in court, threatening to sue the president, which results in we are going to remove your funding if you do not fall in line with federal law and protect the women and girls of your state.
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Just do the right thing an opportunity before you to stand up and say I, as the first female governor of the state of Maine, will stand on the side of women, on girls, and protect them.
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Women of all ages.
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We're talking little girls in sports.
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We're talking young women in high school.
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We're talking professional women, whether it's college professional sports.
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Whatever you have the opportunity to unite, it's college, professional sports.
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Whatever you have the opportunity to unite to be the one that says, as the first female governor, I am going to stand up and protect women.
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Period in my state period.
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Instead, let's defy federal order, let's forego the protections, the securities of women in this state, of girls in this state.
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Let's leave them vulnerable and unprotected and often scared.
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I am going to allow transgender athletes to compete and to rob these women of their opportunities.
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Full disclosure I'm going to bring you into the Liberty Kitchen and share a discussion that I was having with my lovely wife Allie about future me.
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When little Paisley is a blossoming young athlete and she's competing in sports, how would I feel and how would I react?
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If a little transgender boy is competing against my daughter in sports and the conclusion that we arrived at is I am going to approach it like this If a boy can compete against my daughter in a sport, then I am going to wrestle that boy's mother in a steel cage.
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It's only fair.
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This is what you would call an 80-20-90-10 scenario, meaning 80-90% of the population believes that transgenders do not belong in women's sports.
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I am going to again, as I always do, throw the cautionary statement.
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I will give the full frontal confessional I have nothing against transgenders, I have nothing invested.
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I do not care what your sexual preference and beliefs and how you're looking at things.
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How you feel it's okay.
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You do you.
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If you feel like you need to transition and you are a full-grown adult, that's making the able-bodied mind decision that you want to transition, you do you.
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I'm not holding you back.
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It has no impact on me in my life.
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The only impact on me in my life is when you decide that it's right to compete against my daughter, when you decide that it's right for you to have a level playing field with another female in a competitive sport.
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That is no longer right in my opinion.
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I wholeheartedly struggle with an adolescent.
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I struggle with a child or an adolescent making the final decision that they want to transition.
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I don't think that anybody shy of being an adult should have the ability to make that decision.
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And, to be honest, how many adults should be making final decisions?
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Let's look around the room a little bit here to analyze this.
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But what I believed wholeheartedly, convictions I had as a child, as a high school student, as an 18-year-old, a 35-year-old and a 40-year-old they're different, right, they're vastly different If I had made final decisions as a middle schooler or as a high school student on my sexual gender and preference.
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If I made those decisions, I can't stand here today and tell you that I would feel the same way, right's?
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Let's be honest, how many decisions did you make as a child, as a youth, as an adolescent, that you are 1000 percent behind today?
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I don't think it's safe for young people adolescents, children to have final say in those things.
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Some things just take time and all of us struggle with our bodies and our beliefs, and I'm no professional.
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So I'm not here throwing stones and casting doubts.
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I'm just telling you that I think some things need to take a little time to work out.
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That's a whole different subject, a whole different story.
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I'm just here to say I support your beliefs and how you feel, but I hope you can support that we all truly feel.
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80 to 90% of the population feel it's not fair for you to be a male, biological male with male chromosomes, competing against little girls or fellow female athletes.
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You're putting them at a disadvantage, you're robbing them of opportunities, you're taking away goals, hopes, dreams and aspirations, and that's not right.
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We're seeing on a day-to-day basis, new stories come up.
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There's going to be trials, starting about a young girl.
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I believe it was in volleyball or basketball who now has life-altering injuries because of facing a transgender athlete.
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These things I just don't know how we continue to fight about them.
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It was an absolute embarrassment for me to see that my state was taking the low road on this and defending this scenario and robbing women, little girls, of their opportunities.
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It disgusts me.
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It absolutely disgusts me.
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I was proud to see President Trump take a stand and say well, we will rob your state of federal funding because you do not deserve it, because you're not protecting females.
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Again, let's put the emphasis on the first female governor not protecting females.
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None of this makes sense to me.
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This does not add up to me.
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This is an absolute disgrace.
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If you ask me Now, I do believe the latest update is that my state has until Friday.
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So when this episode drops, I'll have a couple of days to buck up and follow suit or this is going to court.
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Now I've also learned that the US Department of Education has also launched a separate probe digging into allegations that dozens of school districts are hiding students' gender plans from their parents.
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So if we roll back the onion a little bit, push the snowball back uphill.
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A few minutes ago we were talking about a child making life-altering decisions.
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If you were responsible at age eight to make a decision that impacted the rest of your life, how would you feel about it?
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If you had the ability to change your sexual identity at age 10, would you regret it now?
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Any of those things, those thoughts, those conversations?
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Do you at all feel that your parents have the right to know that you are questioning those things?
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Do they have the right to know?
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Do you think that parents would want to know, would want to have those things?
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Do they have the right to know?
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Do you think that parents would want to know, would want to have those conversations?
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I do believe the answer would be yes.
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You would think that your parents are entitled to know you would hope they're good enough parents that they would want to know and they would be there to help their child the fact that schools in Maine dozens of them, are under investigation from the US Department of Education that they are hiding students' gender plans from parents.
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So you can have a student.
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Let's just say you have a, I don't know.
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Let's make something up here, folks.
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Let's get creative.
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Going to a guidance counselor and expressing that they've been watching on TV, whatever this certain program is, and they're now interested in exploring being a little girl.
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They feel like they should be a little girl.
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This guidance counselor is going to help them, is going to counsel them and support them in their decision, because they made the decision that they want to be a little girl.
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We're going to help them and we're going to encourage them.
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Let's think about another example for you.
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Let's say a 12-year-old girl goes to the guidance counselor and says I want to be a boy.
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There's a boy trapped inside of me.
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I need to be a boy.
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That guidance counselor is going to support them, instruct them and in many cases we're hearing in Maine, they're going to provide them with these advanced athletic supporter type bras to hide and suppress and compress their whatever developed breast at this point to make them appear more like a boy.
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The school's providing these things, they're assisting in these things and they feel that it is not the parents' right to know these conversations are happening.
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They feel it is not the parents' right to know that their little girl is getting dropped off at school and being acknowledged and recognized and acting as a boy the entire time they're at school.
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It's not their right to know that it's not their right to know, that they're dropping little boys off and they are making the decision at school to be girls and they're allowed in the girls' locker room, they're allowed to change with girls and compete against girls.
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Does any of this stuff sound normal to you?
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Because this just seems asinine.
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This just seems like this is made up.
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This is science fiction.
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Nothing about this seems real.
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Who in their right freaking mind makes the decision that a school decides they have the rights to deny the parents of a child the ability to know that their child is questioning their own sexual preference, that a child is questioning their own gender, their identity?
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These are things that need to be discussed.
00:19:15.531 --> 00:19:17.498
This is absolutely absurd.
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To number one, hide these conversations.
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To number two, encourage their transition.
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To number three support them and provide things to them to do so.
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This is mind-blowing.
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This is a massive problem in our state.
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So not only by Friday, there's our governor who is going to take this to court.
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The deadline is going to slip past.
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Maine's going to lose funding over this.
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She's also hiding these schools in Maine that are denying parents the right to know about their child's gender plans.
00:19:51.915 --> 00:19:53.945
This is out of control to me.
00:19:53.945 --> 00:20:07.844
This doesn't make any sense to me and, if you're asking me, maine deserves to have all funding for its schools to be removed and regardless of the consequences that are going to fall on the innocent.
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It needs to happen because without the sacrifices, none of this gets worked out, and girls' safety deserves to be worked out.
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Sacrifice is worth the safety.
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It needs to happen and I'm here and saying it's okay if my state has to be sacrificed for the betterment of young girls, their safety, their hopes, dreams, aspirations and opportunities.
00:20:33.691 --> 00:20:38.612
This whole thing is absolutely insane to me.
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It takes another turn yet again today.
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This morning, old Papa Bear right here hanging out with the beautiful little Paisley Rain.
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I'm giving her her morning.
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Bubba, she's getting ready for a nice nap.
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We started off watching cartoons.
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Dad switched it over to Fox News, little baby girl starting to fall asleep.
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I'm enjoying a coffee and just getting ready for whatever the day is about to bring, and during that time I watch an interview with Attorney General Pam Bondi as she makes the statement that the United States government is withholding $1.5 million from the main correctional facilities.
00:21:21.853 --> 00:21:24.602
Tweet, tweet, tweet.
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I'm going to blow the podcast whistle here for one memento.
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If you please, I'm going to pause where we're at and I'm going to interject and draw the parallels between this story and a personal connection.
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I need to share some important information with you.
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If I wanted to draw this episode out and do things for pause and dramatic effect, I would save this tidbit for the end.
00:21:49.715 --> 00:21:58.942
But I want you to understand the personal connection, the parallels in this conversation so that you understand and process them.
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As we move through the details, I'm going to set the scene, paint the picture and pave the road for the story that's about to be told.
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If you're a day one, if you've been listening, if you've been following along, understanding my story, my life, my struggle, my journey, you would know that my family comes from a Brady Bunch scenario.
00:22:18.375 --> 00:22:22.767
My father had five children before meeting my mother.
00:22:22.767 --> 00:22:26.144
My mother had one child before meeting my dad.
00:22:26.144 --> 00:22:29.474
My mother had one child before meeting my dad.
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Now, to sprinkle layers of disappointment on my life, one of my dad's sons the oldest sibling to me, who was one of the closest to me he passed away to cancer.
00:22:37.414 --> 00:22:44.949
Another one of my dad's boys passed away with Alzheimer's, dementia and some brain trauma.
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My parents and I were taking care of him in the last years of his life.
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That leaves one boy and two girls who have since disowned me and my mother and we have no association with each other.
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My mother's only child, a boy, who was the youngest one closest to me that's a really horrible way of me explaining that.
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He was the next closest in age to me.
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He was 10 years older than me.
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He was an idol and a role model to me as a child and he, very young in life, made decisions to choose and prioritize drugs over family, drugs over opportunity, drugs over all things in his life, and it has cost him a great deal of his life.
00:23:29.435 --> 00:23:33.001
I've seen more of his kids growing up than he has.
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There's been a lot of really piss, poor choices in his life that he's had to pay for and he's missed on a lot of highs and lows in life.
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He's missed his kids growing up.
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He's missed their high school graduations.
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He's missed so many firsts in their lives.
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He's also missed a lot of lasts in people's lives.
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He was not here with me to say goodbye to our grandparents as they passed.
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He wasn't here to say goodbye to siblings as they passed or to be here with us as we say goodbye to my father as he passed.
00:24:06.986 --> 00:24:10.269
He's missed out on so so many things.
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My brother has been in prison so long.
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He's never met my wife.
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They've had conversations.
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They've never met in person.
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He's never seen my little girl.
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My brother has been incarcerated longer than my wife and I have been together.
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We have been an item for over 10 years now and they've never met.
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So my brother's actually getting close to his release date.
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His sentence is coming up this year and he is going to transition to a halfway house like rehab facility after prison.
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So he would get out of prison and then he would be brought to this halfway house.
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That would help him to adjust to normal life.
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That would help him adjust to society, give him some of the tools he needs.
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It's a four month long program to help him get on his feet.
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Think about some of the things in this life that he's missed.
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Think about some of the things in this world that have changed right.
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So much has changed If we look at the opioid epidemic in this world right now.
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If my brother has been in prison for over 10 years and he's been a lifelong drug addict, if he were to come out and attempt some of the drugs that are on the street today.
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It would kill him.
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Right?
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He's going to come out to a world that was free of iPhones before he went in.
00:25:37.623 --> 00:25:39.667
Think about the technology and the advancements.
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Think about the cost of living.
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He went in jail when a one-bedroom apartment in the city was $400 or $500 a month.
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Let's say, think about that same apartment's probably $2,000 a month right now.
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Think about all these things.
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Right?
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So for him to be incarcerated for over 10 years?
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He has also, at this point, spent more time of his life behind bars than on the other side of bars.
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He's experienced more life behind bars than in the sunshine.
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Right?
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