The Montana GOP blocked a trans lawmaker from speaking

Demonstration of the House of Representative Zooey Zephyr During a Gun-Reform Reaction on July 17, 2018

There is a person in Helena, Mont. Since last week, Montana’s Republican House Speaker Matt Regier has refused to acknowledge or let Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat, speak.

The Montana House has been tense for a while. Zephyr said she ran for office after Republican lawmakers passed legislation restricting the rights of transgender Montanans in 2021.

A number of leading U.S. medical groups say that gender-affirming care improves physical and mental health of trans and gender Diverse people.

More than 150 demonstrators were gathered in the House gallery to show their support for Zephyr, and as Speaker Regier banged his gavel, the chanting continued and grew louder. He told the sergeant-at-arms to clear the gallery.

“Rep. Zephyr is the only person who won’t allow members to participate in debate,” he said.

The Speaker doesn’t have a right to block her speech indefinitely as Democratic leaders argue, because she broke the rules by using accusatory language on the floor.

While the House has yet to take formal steps to expel Zephyr, the debate around decorum comes just about three weeks after House Republicans in Tennessee voted to expel two young Black Democrats, Rep. Justin J. Pearson and Rep. Justin Jones, from that chamber.

Pearson, Jones and another Democrat used a megaphone on the House floor during a gun-reform protest. In just a few days’ time, both lawmakers were voted back into their seats by local councils.

Many Republican lawmakers left the chamber while many Democrats stayed behind. Zephyr stayed at her desk throughout the uproar, holding her microphone above her head aiming 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. All were released within a few hours.

Zephyr said he felt proud of his community, as they shouted “let her speak” while he was waiting with the arrested. “Because when they stood up, they are standing on behalf of democracy. They are standing to make sure that their electeds get heard. That the causes that they care about aren’t 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.”

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

“Leadership has chosen to abandon any notion of integrity,” Gwen Nicholson, a Missoula resident, told the crowd, “instead opting for underhanded, anti-democratic cheap tricks to silence speech they don’t like in order to pass shameful laws meant to limit freedom, oppress minorities and consolidate power among a select few.”

She’s not afraid of a challenge: How much decorum is needed in a state legislature — and what is she going to do next year?

She toldNPR that she decided to run for office in Montana because she cried watching bills pass through the legislature and thought she could change her mind. Representation is necessary in that room. I’m going to try to get in there. “

Despite the pause in work on the House side, members are still under a tight deadline. Montana’s Constitution says that it must adjourn in eight days and they haven’t finished their budget task, usually their most important task.

“If you use decorum to silence people who hold you accountable, all you are doing is using decorum as a tool of oppression,” Zephyr said during the debate Wednesday.

The Tennessee House voted three weeks ago to expel two state lawmakers for using a megaphone on the floor during a gun reform protest. Jones and Pearson were restored by the local council.

Now in office, she’s taken a very strong stance against bills to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors, to ban minors from attending drag shows and to define sex as binary in state code.

Seven people were arrested during a demonstration on Monday in protest of being blocked from speaking for three days. Republican leaders condemned the events as “a riot.”

Kim Abbott is the leader of the House’s minority caucus. The public gallery was closed for Wednesday’s proceedings.