Trans Lawmaker in Montana Continues to Fight After Being Banished from House Chambers

Montana transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr is continuing to fight for trans rights and gender-affirming care outside of the state House chambers that she was banished from. It all started last week after Zephyr told fellow lawmakers who were backing a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors that they would have blood on their hands.

Although this phrase is not new and has been used previously by both Republicans and Democrats about the nation’s most critical issues, Montana House leaders still said they would not allow Zephyr to continue to participate in the debate until she apologized for saying it.

Zephyr did not apologize and instead participated in a protest that disrupted Monday’s House session as observers in the gallery chanted, “Let her speak!”—resulting in Wednesday’s vote to banish her from the floor for the rest of the legislative session, which ends next week. The motion Republicans passed bars Zephyr from the marble-pillared House, the gallery above it, and a waiting room. Even after being exiled from the floor and required to vote remotely, Zephyr has not backed down and voted from a bench just outside the state House chambers on Thursday of last week.

She stayed put even after the Republican House speaker said she couldn’t be there and a House security officer threatened to move the bench where she had set up her laptop. A gold sticky note was placed on the wall just above her head by transgender and nonbinary Rep. SJ Howell and read “Seat 31,” her seat assignment in the house.

The Republican’s response to her comments, and her refusal to apologize as demanded, have shown a spotlight on Zephyr, who is now a prominent figure in the nationwide battle for transgender rights.

“Silencing an elected representative, in an attempt to suppress their messages, is a denial of democratic values. It’s undemocratic,” White House Press Secretary Kaine Jean-Pierre says Thursday in response to the actions taken over Zephyr’s comment.

Republicans moved to deter Zephyr further by shutting down both of the committees she currently serves on and moving the bills they were to hear to other committees, Democratic Rep. Donavon Hawk says in a statement.

“I walked out yesterday with my head held high, and I walked in with my head held high today, ready to do my job,” Zephyr tells The Associated Press in an interview. She says throughout the events of the past week, she has both aimed to rise and meet the moment and continue doing the job she was elected to do: representing her community and constituents.

“It’s queer people across the world and the constituents of other representatives who are saying, ‘They won’t listen’ when it comes to these issues. It’s staff in this building who, when no one is looking, come up and say ‘Thank you,’” she says.

Photo courtesy of Tommy Martino from Associated Press