Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a first-term Democrat from Missoula, had aimed to speak on a proposal that would have restricted when children could change the names and pronouns they go by in schools and required their parents’ consent.
Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, watches a House Rules Committee meeting on Thursday, April 20, 2023 in the state capitol in Helena, Mont.
The ordeal is the latest development in a three-day fight over Zephyr’s remarks equating support for a ban on gender-affirming care for minors to violence. Zephyr, who is transgender, hasn’t been allowed to speak on the statehouse floor since Thursday because she told her Republican colleagues last week they would have “blood on their hands” if they banned gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.
“When those communities who see the repercussions of those bills have the audacity to stand up and say, ‘This legislation gets us killed,’ those in power aren’t content with just passing those hateful harmful bills,” she said. “What they are demanding is silence. We will not be complicit in our eradication.”
The standoff is the latest example of emergent discussions around civility, decorum and how to discuss political issues many perceive as life and death.Zephyr was silenced and deliberately misgendered by some Republican lawmakers in response to her charge last week. She plans to keep trying to speak on the House floor Monday despite Republican leaders insisting that won’t happen until she apologizes.
“She’s been silenced because she spoke the truth about what these anti-trans bills are doing in Montana -- to trans youth especially,” she said of Zephyr.
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