Transgender Montana lawmaker Zooey Zephyr said she is defending the LGBTQ+ community as the state House decides whether to punish her.
Zephyr declared in a bold statement on Wednesday that she was standing up for her town, her Missoula residents, and “democracy itself” in a direct address to House Speaker Matt Regier.
She claimed that he was silencing her in an effort to silence her 11,000 constituents and put “a nail in the coffin of democracy.”
“If you use decorum to silence people who hold you accountable, then all you’re doing is using decorum as a tool of oppression,” Zephyr said.
Republican leaders in Montana were voting Wednesday on whether to discipline transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr for saying her colleagues would “see the blood on your hands” over votes to ban gender-affirming medical care for children.
Zephyr has been prohibited from speaking on the House floor for the past week.
The House’s meeting on Monday was interrupted by a protest against legislators suppressing Zephyr. Republicans assert that Zephyr promoted the altercation, which led to the detention of seven persons by the authorities. According to a letter she shared on social media, the first-term Democrat received notification from House leaders on Tuesday night that they intended to take disciplinary action against her.
“I’ve also been told I’ll get a chance to speak,” Zephyr tweeted. “I will do as I have always done — rise on behalf of my constituents, in defense of my community and for democracy itself.”
The move to discipline Zephyr is the latest development in a standoff over whether Montana Republicans will let the lawmaker from Missoula speak unless she apologizes for her remarks last week on the proposed ban. Conservative Republicans have repeatedly misgendered Zephyr since the remarks by using incorrect pronouns to describe her.
Zephyr’s punishment has sparked a firestorm of discussion about governance and who has a voice in democracy in these politically divisive times, similar to what happened in the Tennessee Statehouse a few weeks ago when state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two Black lawmakers, were expelled for taking part in a post-school shooting gun control protest that disrupted proceedings.