Monique Dostie runs a group home for the mentally retarded in Lewiston, Maine. Her house rules include a prohibition on pornography and sexual activity, a condition that none of her residents object to. Indeed, some of their guardians deliberately chose to put them in Dostie’s home because they liked her house rules. But the bureaucrats thinks differently and have refused to renew Dostie’s license.
The Department of Human Services argues that the residents have a right to sexually explicit material and to sexual activity. The state is aware that the residents are not interested in exercising such rights but that doesn’t deter the bureaucrats from imposing their will on Dostie: she must either extend these rights or suffer the consequences.
The sex cops in Maine started the whole thing when a representative from the Bureau of Mental Retardation presented Dostie with a booklet, “Sexuality and People with Developmental Disabilities.” Dostie objected to the very graphic sexual instructions and gave the booklet back; she was then reported to the Department of Human Services.
Dostie’s objections are grounded in her Catholicism and she is being represented by the American Catholic Lawyers Association. State officials allowed the home to remain open over the summer while they conclude their investigation.
