Montana House votes to formally punish transgender lawmaker, Rep. Zooey Zephyr
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Rep. Zooey Zephyr speaking on the House floor in Helena, Mont., on April 26, 2023 shortly before Republicans voted to formally punish Zephyr by barring her from attending or speaking during House session.Shaylee Ragar / Montana Public Radio -
Republican House Majority Leader Sue Vinton speaking on the House floor in Helena, Mont., on April 26, 2023 shortly before Republicans voted to formally punish Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr.Shaylee Ragar / Montana Public Radio
HELENA, Mont. – Republicans, who dominate the Montana House of Representatives, have voted Wednesday to formally punish Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr.
Zephyr, who is transgender, has been blocked from speaking since last week. That's when she told supporters of a bill to ban gender-affirming care that when they bowed their heads in prayer, she hoped they would see "blood on [their] hands." She says she was alluding to studies that show that transgender health care can reduce suicidality in youth.
The formal punishment decided Wednesday bans Zephyr from attending or speaking during floor sessions. She will only be allowed to vote remotely in the remaining days of the legislative session. It's a lesser punishment than expulsion, which was also on the table, according to House leadership.
"I have fielded calls from families in Montana, including one family whose trans teenager attempted to take her life while watching a hearing on one of the anti-trans bills," Zephyr said during the debate Wednesday. "So, when I rose up and said 'there is blood on your hands,' I was not being hyperbolic," she said.
"If you use decorum to silence people who hold you accountable, all you are doing is using decorum as a tool of oppression," Zephyr added.
Monday, seven people were arrested during a demonstration in the House gallery in protest of Zephyr being blocked from speaking for three consecutive days.
"Monday, this body witnessed one of its members participating in conduct that disrupted and disturbed the orderly proceedings of this body ... placing legislators, staff and even our pages at risk of harm," said Republican House Majority Leader Sue Vintin before the vote to punish Zephyr. Democrats have taken issue with the characterization that anything about the protesters' behavior Monday was unsafe.
The Montana controversy comes about three weeks after the Tennessee House voted to expel state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson for using a megaphone on the floor during a gun reform protest. Both Jones and Pearson were reinstated shortly after.
The background
The tension in the Montana House has been building for a while. Zephyr said she ran for office after Republican lawmakers passed legislation restricting the rights of transgender Montanans in 2021.
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.
Monday, seven people were arrested during a demonstration in the House gallery in protest of Zephyr being blocked from speaking for three consecutive days.
Speaker of the House Matt Regier says Zephyr violated the rules of the chamber during the debate over a bill to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors. He said she would be blocked from speaking on the floor unless she apologized.
Zephyr says she stands by her comments. In a notice, Republican leaders cited the section of the Montana Constitution that gives authority to the legislature to "expel or punish a member for good cause" with a two-thirds majority vote.
House Minority Leader Kim Abbott says her caucus will hold Republicans accountable for their "anti-democratic agenda." The public gallery was closed for Wednesday's proceedings.
Members are under a tight deadline in the coming days. Montana's Constitution says it must adjourn in a matter of days, and they've yet to finish piecing together a budget.
Shaylee Ragar is Montana Public Radio's capitol bureau chief and Acacia Squires is NPR's States Team editor.
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Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Montana Republicans banned a transgender lawmaker today from attending or speaking at state House sessions for the rest of the year after she criticized anti-trans bills. Now, the punishment comes two days after a noisy protest in support of her at the Montana House of Representatives. Police in riot gear were called to clear protesters from the public gallery, and seven were arrested. Montana Public Radio's Shaylee Ragar joins us now from Helena. Hi, Shaylee.
SHAYLEE RAGAR, BYLINE: Hey, Ailsa.
CHANG: Hey. OK, so to be very clear here, we're talking about Democratic Representative Zooey Zephyr. What specifically led to this action against her?
RAGAR: It all started last week when Representative Zephyr made a comment on a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth. She said that when supporters of the bill bowed their heads to pray, she hoped that they would see blood on their hands, alluding to studies that show transgender people who get health care have lower rates of suicidality. Two days later, House Speaker Matt Regier barred her from speaking in the chamber until she apologized. Representative Zephyr has refused to do so and wasn't allowed to participate in debate on the House floor for three days.
CHANG: OK, so wait, the Republican majority in Montana's legislature voted to discipline Zephyr for the remarks that she made last week?
RAGAR: Not quite. Although Republican lawmakers have broadly condemned her remarks, calling them accusatory, the discipline was for encouraging Monday's protest. Zephyr's supporters packed the House gallery and disrupted proceedings by shouting - let her speak. Zephyr, who was on the House floor, held her microphone over her head, attempting to amplify the shouts. And that's when the House speaker called for the public to be removed from the chamber.
CHANG: And they called the police to restore order?
RAGAR: That's what Speaker Regier said at the time. He's since called it a riot and said it put people in the building at risk. Here's how Representative Zephyr described the protests today, speaking in her own defense on the House floor.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ZOOEY ZEPHYR: What my constituents and my community did is came here and said, that is our voice in this body. Let her speak. Let her speak. And when the speaker gaveled down the people demanding that democracy work, demanding that their representative be heard - when he gaveled down, what he was doing is driving a nail in the coffin of democracy.
RAGAR: Zephyr's supporters, including Montana's Democratic Party, say the protest was a peaceful exercise of citizens' First Amendment rights and that the only violence came when police put protesters in handcuffs and took them out of the chamber. We should say no one involved needed any medical attention as a result of what happened.
CHANG: OK. Well, I understand that Montana House rules require a two-thirds vote to discipline a member, and it sounds like they did meet that threshold. What exactly is the punishment?
RAGAR: Right. Republicans hold a supermajority and voted in unison in favor of the punishment. Representative Zephyr is now barred from participating in debates on the House floor for the remainder of the legislative session. She'll still be able to vote on bills remotely, but she can't join her colleagues on the floor or speak on legislation. As far as we know, no Montana legislator has faced punishment like this in at least decades.
CHANG: And real quick, how is Zephyr responding?
RAGAR: She says it's undemocratic and that the House voted to take away the voices of her 11,000 constituents as lawmakers debate policy for the next seven days. The session is almost over, and it's going to be a pretty consequential week. Many of Zephyr's supporters have voiced outrage over her punishment and have promised further protests.
CHANG: That is Shaylee Ragar of Montana Public Radio. Thank you, Shaylee.
RAGAR: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF ENYA SONG, "BOADICEA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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