Trans legislator Zooey Zephyr is not allowed on the Montana House floor for the rest of the YEAR
Transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr was barred from the Montana House floor after Republican lawmakers voted to silence her for the remainder of the 2023 session.
She said her Republican colleagues will have them ‘blood on their hands’ if they ban sex reassignment surgeries on children – which led to her being silenced in sessions this week.
Now the trans politician has been denied access to the floor, the front room and the grandstand for the rest of the legislative session this year. Her ban passed by a vote of 68 to 32 along party lines.
The new legislature’s sentence closes a week between House Democrats and Republicans in Montana.
During her disciplinary vote today, she said in a defiant speech, “I stood up that day in defense of my community and spoke about the harm these bills are doing that I know firsthand.
Trans politician Zooey Zephyr was barred from the floor, antechamber and grandstand for the remainder of this year’s legislative session. Her ban was passed by a vote of 68 to 32
The session voted to bar the politician from speaking for the rest of the year
“I’ve had friends take their own lives because of these bills. I’ve been getting calls from families in Montana, including a family whose trans teen attempted to take her life while she was watching a hearing on one of the anti-trans laws.
“When the speaker asks me to apologize… on behalf of the decorum, he’s actually asking me to keep quiet when my community faces bills that are killing us.
“He asks me to be complicit in the extermination of our community by this legislature, and I refuse to do that, and I always will.”
Zephyr addressed House Speaker Matt Regier directly, saying she was standing up for the LGBTQ+ community, her constituents in Missoula, and “democracy itself.”
She accused him of taking the votes of her 11,000 voters and trying to drive “a nail into the coffin of democracy” by silencing her.
Zephyr said she wasn’t hyperbolic when she said “there’s blood on your hands.”
The Speaker of the House had previously said he would not let her speak until she apologized, which Zephyr refused to do.
On Monday, Zephyr and her supporters paused proceedings for nearly half an hour in protest of Republican lawmakers asking her to speak on a proposal that would limit when children can change the names and pronouns they use in school and require parental consent , have rejected.
Zephyr leaves the Montana House of Representatives after lawmakers voted Wednesday, April 26, 2023 to ban her from the chamber
Zephyr addressed House Speaker Matt Regier directly, saying she was standing up for the LGBTQ+ community, her constituents in Missoula, and “democracy itself”
Zephyr is pictured here protesting as protesters are arrested in the house gallery, Monday, April 24, 2023
The transgender legislator hoisted her microphone as several people gathered in the capital, leading to seven arrests for criminal trespass. They would be booked and released, police said.
Zephyr, a first-term Democrat from Missoula, has not spoken on the Statehouse floor since last Tuesday, when she told Republican colleagues they would have “blood on their hands” if they banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.
Monday’s disruption drew the ire of Republican leaders, who described it as a “riot” and an “uprising.”
Leaders cut the sound of the video feed and Zephyr remained on the floor with her microphone as supporters also shouted ‘Whose house? Our house!’ The sergeant-at-arms asked Zephyr to help sort things out – a request she said she declined.
Zephyr was silenced and deliberately misled by some Republican lawmakers in response to her indictment last week.
A protester is rounded up in the stands of the House of Representatives during a protest after the Speaker of the House of Representatives again refused to recognize the transgender legislature
Law enforcement officers forcibly clear the gallery of the Montana House of Representatives during a protest after the Speaker of the House again refused to let Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula
Several people gathered in the capital, leading to seven arrests for criminal trespass. They would be booked and released, police said
Republican leaders have demanded she apologize and said they will not speak to any legislator they don’t trust to uphold decency — regardless of party or gender. Misgendering is using pronouns that do not match a person’s gender identity.
Months after Zephyr became the first openly transgender woman elected to the Montana legislature, the state joined a long list of legislatures approving new restrictions on transgender children.
Proposals this year addressed issues ranging from the health care they can access to the sports teams they can play on to the names they can use.
While proceedings have become heated in more than a dozen state houses, Republican efforts to dissuade Zephyr from speaking have brought renewed attention to such legislative battles.
Lawmakers approved the gender-affirming care ban last week, and Gianforte has indicated that he will sign it.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal have vowed to challenge it in court before it takes effect in October.
Since Dylan Mulvaney’s Bud Light sponsorship, the transgender community has been engulfed in recent weeks.