The GOP in Montana had blocked trans lawmaker from speaking

Protests against a gender-affirming measure that takes seriously the right pronouns out of the classroom, and when lawmakers closed the door for a local council

HELENA, Mont. – Republican House Speaker Matt Regier refused to acknowledge or let a democrat speak at a meeting last week.

Protesters shouted “let her speak” on Monday when Zephyr was ignored after indicating she wanted to speak. The bill would say that pronouns used by students who are non-traditional should not be used by others in school.

A number of U.S. medical groups have stated that gender-affirming care is beneficial for the physical and mental health of trans and gender Diverse people.

More than 150 demonstrators had gathered in the House gallery to demonstrate, and when Speaker Regier banged his gavel and called for order the chanting continued and grew louder. He called for the sergeant-at-arms to clear the gallery.

“The only person silencing Rep. Zephyr is Rep. Zephyr,” he said, adding that House members are free to participate in debate while following House rules.

Democratic leaders disagree Zephyr broke the rules against using accusatory language on the floor, saying the Speaker doesn’t have the right to block her speech indefinitely.

In Tennessee, House Republicans voted to expel two young Black Democrats after they were accused of plagiarizing speeches and making racist statements.

The speaker of the Tennessee House said that Pearson, Jones and another Democrat broke the rules of decorum by speaking on the House floor during a gun-reform protest. The lawmakers were voted into their seats by local councils after a few days.

Many Republican lawmakers left the chambers, while many in the Democratic caucus stayed behind and watched. She remained at her desk and held her microphone above her head to amplify the protestors.

Fifteen minutes later, the last of the protestors were arrested and the doors to the chamber were locked. Seven people were charged with criminal trespassing and transported to Lewis and Clark County jail, according to Sheriff Leo Dutton. They were all released in a few hours.

“My constituents and community came up and shouted ‘let her speak’ – I felt pride in them,” Zephyr said outside the Capitol while waiting with the arrested. They stand for democracy when they stand up. They are standing to make sure that their elected officials are heard. That the causes they care about don’t get silenced.”

Republican leaders released a statement calling Monday’s events a “riot by far-left agitators” and said they “condemn violence and will always stand for civil debate.”

“Protests like that are part of this process,” said Democrat Kim Abbott, the House Minority Leader. She disputed Republicans’ characterization of the events, saying protestors were non-violent. “Absolutely people have the right to come in a peaceful protest, and that’s what they did.”

Gwen Nicholson, a resident of the city of Missoula, told the crowd that leadership abandoned integrity because it wanted to pass laws that would oppress minorities, limit freedom and consolidate power.

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Zephyr told NPR in an interview that she ran for office in Montana because she could change her mind after watching bills go through the legislature by a single vote. We need representation in that room. I’m going to try to get in there.’ “

Even though work in the House is paused for one day, members are still under a tight deadline. Montana’s Constitution says it must adjourn in eight days, and they’ve yet to finish piecing together a budget, typically their most important task.

The Democrats next door in Georgia gathered on ZOOM to talk about what happened in Tennessee a day after the House of Representatives voted to expel two Black legislators.

“This is not a time that we should downsize,” state Rep. Kim Schofield said. This is a day of change. You are mistaken if you don’t think it can happen in Georgia.

While the two Tennessee Democrats are now back in their seats, lawmakers in other parts of the country worry the debacle over decorum may foreshadow what’s to come in their own state legislatures.

On the Georgia call among Democrats, House Minority Leader James Beverly said Georgia’s Republican-led legislature also applies decorum rules and norms unevenly, like adopting new local redistricting maps over the protests of the statehouse delegations that represent those communities.

He pointed to the incident when Cannon was arrested at the capitol. The locked door of the room where the news conference was being held was the one she knocked on.

Julian Bond, a young Black civil rights leader, had just been elected to a Georgia House seat. But he refused to dissociate from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which had released a critical statement on the Vietnam War. The legislature did not want to seat him.

There’s a story to be told about the “Original 33.” During Reconstruction, they were the first African Americans elected to Georgia’s legislature. Lawmakers from the two main parties banded together to have them kicked out.

Georgia, Tennessee, Montana or any other state’s politics have a lot to do with national partisan battles that are happening in the legislature, according to a political science professor at the University of Washington.

He says there is a tug of war going on at the state level and that is where the political opportunities are.

The book is called Laboratories against Democracy: How National Parties Changed State Politics. While both Democratic and Republican majorities have power, one party has more propensity to break the norm.

This year there have been moves in Tennessee and Montana. Two Democrats were arrested in Florida for protesting new abortion restrictions. A lawmaker from Oklahoma was kicked off committees.

The two Tennesee Democrats interrupted a floor session with a megaphone, as they called on their colleagues to consider stronger gun laws after a mass shooting at a private Nashville elementary school.

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Georgia’s House Majority Leader, Republican Chuck Efstration, says these moves in other statehouses don’t apply in Georgia. Republicans don’t have the votes to remove a member.

The Georgia House of Representatives believes in maintaining a respectful debate and voting their conscience, that’s how a legislative body ought to work, according to Efstration.

Democrats in Georgia acknowledge Tennessee may be an extreme example. The majority of the time exploits their control to push through legislation that doesn’t match the views of residents, like limiting abortion and making it harder to vote.

Grumbach says gerrymandering helps make this possible. In battleground Georgia last year, just five of 236 statehouse races were considered competitive in the 2022 election.

Democratic Rep. Michelle Au sees that disconnect in Republicans’ unwillingness to consider even broadly popular proposals to strengthen Georgia’s gun laws. Her bill requiring safe firearm storage around children was a big deal.