Wow. Mikey Heath, a long-time Blend fave is jumping from the Tanzania Tupperware and into the fire!

Somedays, ya just can’t make shite up…

AUGUSTA – Michael Heath, former executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine, has registered with the state ethics commission as a gubernatorial candidate.

Heath, a resident of China, is listed as an unenrolled candidate, which means he has until June 1 to get at least 4,000 signatures to qualify for the November ballot.

 Heath recently announced the formation of a group called the American Family Association of Maine. At the time, he said he was “re-entering public life to continue the fight against the gay-rights lobby.”

Heath spent 15 years working for the Christian Civic League, and became its executive director in 1994. He twice led people’s veto efforts to overturn gay-rights laws.

Heath was not a visible part of last year’s fight over same-sex marriage, which ended with voters repealing a state law legalizing it. He announced his resignation in September from the civic league, which is now called the Maine Family Policy Council.

Heath did not return a phone call or e-mail seeking comment.

MUCH more below the fold…

* Related: “Welcome Back, Heath!”Clinton had his Fleetwood Mac theme song of “Don’t Stop”, Obama his U2 “Beautiful Day”- Mikey is a cinch to have Annie Lennox’s “Missionary Man”…

Heath and his wife, Polly, recently returned from a missionary trip to Africa, Celeste said.

He said he’s optimistic about Health’s chances as a candidate.

“People spend a phenomenal amount of money trying to get name recognition and position recognition and I would venture to say, there is not a voter in the state of Maine that does not know the name Mike Heath and does not know his position,” Celeste said.

Cue the music…

I do find it very interesting that while “Two Fisted Man of God”/ MFPC, er, CCL head Mike Hein was more than willing to announce Rev. Bob Emrich’s candidacy, he was not willing to do the same for his former boss…

And what motivated DownEast Maine’s leading “Prognosticator of Prognostications” to plunge reluctantly and rather tepidly into the gubernatorial abyss?

What else? He’s thinking of the CHILDRUN!!!

No, not the kids at his alma mater… the transgender kids of Maine.

(Bob, of Harrison ME) Celeste said he and Heath were upset when the Maine Human Rights Commission recently considered issuing guidelines for equitable treatment of transgender students in public schools, including allowing them to use bathrooms and play on sports teams with the gender they identify with. A final decision is expected in May.

“This was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Celeste told the Sun Journal.

“We need a bully pulpit; we need to let people know how bad this is becoming and how hard we’ve been fighting. Mike is the most viable candidate to restore Maine to its more conservative roots.”

In some news that will please Heath and other haters in Maine, Maine’s Human Rights Commission panel has postponed implementation of the recommended transgender guidelines. More later, as news becomes available.

AUGUSTA, Maine – The Maine Human Rights Commission is backing away from controversial plans to issue new guidelines for how schools should accommodate transgender students.

Commission members decided Monday to cancel a public hearing on the issue and to shelve, at least temporarily, work on a guidance document called “Sexual Orientation in Schools and Colleges.”

The proposed guidelines have sparked a heated debate over what steps, if any, schools should take to accommodate students who identify with the opposite gender rather than with their biological sex. The issue becomes particularly thorny when dealing with questions over transgender students’ use of locker rooms and bathrooms and ability to play on athletics teams.

“They made a decision not to move forward at this time with the guidance,” said Patricia Ryan, executive director of the Maine Human Rights Commission, the state agency charged with enforcing the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

“They are feeling that they want some time,” Ryan said. “There are cases coming before them and they want to figure out the best way to receive public input” on the guidelines.

Gee, I thought that was what the previously announced public hearing was supposed to be about, Ms. Ryan… feels more like a “bait and switch” sort of nasty trick, played on the children who will be directly affected and protected by these guidelines- if ever implemented.

But no; let’s continue to let these kids feel unsafe, endangered, ashamed. Let’s continue to ignore their existence, their rights and needs, and the inequalities that they face on a daily basis in Maine.

Despite the 2005 law that requires that they not be discriminated against in Maine.

Let’s continue with an outdated status quo, a “nothing to see here!” mentality.

There should be an outcry from GLSEN, GLAD, and every single Civil Rights Team in Maine today.

Demanding better, demanding more, demanding what is FAIR- for ALL Maine students.

This makes as good a time as any to formally announce that I’m going to more of a part-time blogging status here at the Blend for awhile…

There is far too much going on in my home state not to take on more proactive positions locally; while not running for office (although certainly and persistently encouraged to do so), I am going to be working my heart out closer to home for awhile.

Will keep ya up to date; will ask for your support and help…

And as for Heath, Emrich, and other anti-LGBTQ candidates, I simply say this: BRING. IT. ON.