The Maine House Democrats selected self-described “Transgender Death Educator” Quinn Gormley, former executive director of the far-left transgender advocacy group Maine Trans Net, to deliver the prayer invocation starting Thursday’s legislative day.
“A great holiness I pray here for these leaders in our state, may they approach their work with regard for the dignity of all the people they serve. May they understand that diversity is the intent of the design, and may they have the wisdom to know that the path to justice begins with humility and travels through mercy, in the name of all that is sacred and good in this world I pray,” said Gormley.
The prayer did not appear to be directed to any particular deity and conspicuously avoided any mention of God. It did, however, implore legislators to celebrate diversity.
Gormley’s prayer, urging justice and mercy, comes as Rep. Laurel Libby (R-Auburn) remains unable to vote or speak on the House floor following a Democrat-led censure imposed on her after she posted a publicly-available photo showing a transgender-identifying male standing victorious over girls following a high-school sporting event.
Gormley, a transgender-identifying male, has a long history of far-left political activism in Maine. During his time as Executive Director at Maine Trans Net—an organization that allegedly permitted sexual behavior between minors—he was called in to testify as an expert on bills to expand minors’ access to irreversible transgender surgeries.
In 2022, Gov. Mills invited Gormley to the signing of pro-transgender legislation.
Gormley stepped down from his position at Maine TransNet in 2023, although that decision was not related to the alleged misconduct in the group.
Currently, Gormley works as a part-time clinical chaplain at the MaineHealth Maine Medical Center and holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary.
He also currently serves on the Auburn School Committee.
According to his LinkedIn account, Gormley is also a “transgender death educator,” something he decided to list ahead of his work as a chaplain, though his death education appears to be done on a freelance basis.
His LinkedIn page does not explain what transgender death education actually entails, but his personal website provides further details.
“My current areas of research are focused on Transgender death and dying, evidenced based spiritual care practices, the psychological impact of anti-queer and anti-trans policy choices, and pastoral responses to climate anxiety,” he says.
He serves as a founding member of the ongoing Dying Trans project that seeks to “close the gap in gender affirming death, dying, and post-mortem.”
It is unclear what a “gender-affirming death” is, or how a post-mortem can be gender-affirming.
The project uses the tagline “Gender is a womb-to-tomb experience,” and includes a “manifesto.”
“Trans people too often face death and dying unprepared for the legal, spiritual, medical, and logistical decisions that must be made. It is a special tragedy knowing that many of us face our final chapters in environments that do not see us for who we are, and do not allow us to be remembered for who we were,” says the manifesto.
“We have never been strangers to death work. We believe that we honor trans living when we insist on the self determination of trans dying,” it added.
The project is a collaboration between numerous trans activists, including Sivan Piatigorsky-Roth, a transgender-identifying rabbinical student and cartoonist, Hopper Gibby, among the first non-binary-identifying Methodist ministers, and Jess Hunt, a queer “parenter” “dedicated to holding space for the uncomfortable,” who lists her pronouns as they, none.
In April 2023, Gormley told the state legislature that he began working as a prostitute at the age of 14 to fund his academic pursuits and sex-change medications that his parents did not want him to receive at such a young age. He also admitted to working as a phone sex worker, although it is unclear if that job took place while he was still a minor.
That testimony came in support of LD 535, a bill to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to receive cross-sex drugs, even against the objections of their parents.
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