Rep. Justin Chenette, D-Saco, said on the floor Thursday afternoon that as a gay man, he feels threatened by the bill.

“Religious freedom is important, but this bill just rubs salt in a wound,” said Chenette. “It makes me feel like a second-class citizen. … It is because I support both equal rights and religious rights that I oppose this bill.”

Rep. Justin Chenette, D-Saco, who is gay, said the bill offended him. “It makes me feel like a second-class citizen,” he said.

Rep. Justin Chenette, who at 22 is the youngest openly-gay legislator in America, talked eloquently and vehemently about how the bill would affect him. “Religious freedom is important, but this bill makes me feel like a second-class citizen… Name me an issue in Maine — I still haven’t heard one.”

“There isn’t an issue. This is a bill searching for a problem, rather than solving one,” Chenette told his colleagues. “This wastes taxpayer money… It’s fiscally responsible to oppose it.”