Get 40% Off
🤯 This Tech Portfolio is up 29% YTD! Join Now to Get April’s Top PicksGet The Picks – Just 99 USD

Montana transgender legislator silenced after 'blood on your hands' comment

Published 04/26/2023, 05:01 PM
Updated 04/27/2023, 02:25 AM
© Reuters. Montana State Representative Zooey Zephyr leaves the House chamber after a motion to bar her passed, at the Montana State Capitol in Helena, Montana, U.S. April 26, 2023. Rep. Zephyr will still be able to vote on bills remotely.  REUTERS/Mike Clark

© Reuters. Montana State Representative Zooey Zephyr leaves the House chamber after a motion to bar her passed, at the Montana State Capitol in Helena, Montana, U.S. April 26, 2023. Rep. Zephyr will still be able to vote on bills remotely. REUTERS/Mike Clark

By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) - Montana statehouse Republicans on Wednesday silenced Democratic transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr from floor debates for breaking decorum after she said lawmakers who backed a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors would have "blood on your hands."

Under the motion that passed with a vote of 68-32, Zephyr will be allowed to vote but is barred from the House floor, anteroom or gallery for the remainder of the legislative session, scheduled to end on May 10.

The discord in Montana - which has garnered national attention amid an escalating culture war in the U.S. over issues like transgender rights - has brewed since an April 18 debate over Senate Bill 99. The state measure seeks to ban transgender healthcare treatments for minors, including puberty blockers and hormones.

Zephyr, a first-term representative from Missoula, said in the debate that denying such care was "tantamount to torture," and that a ban would lead to more suicides.

"If you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there's an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands," Zephyr said.

In response, the Republican supermajority silenced her within the chamber until she apologized, prompting a large protest by Zephyr supporters at the statehouse on Monday.

When protesters in the gallery disrupted that session by chanting "Let her speak!," the House speaker ordered representatives to abandon the floor, but Zephyr stayed in place, pointing a microphone toward her supporters.

Seven demonstrators were arrested, and Republicans increased their attention on Zephyr, with the ultraconservative Montana Freedom Caucus on Monday urging she be punished.

Majority Leader Sue Vinton, who presented the motion, stressed the need for decorum so that the rights of all representatives were protected.

    "Monday, this body witnessed one of its members participating in conduct that disrupted and disturbed the orderly proceedings," Vinton said. "This member (Zephyr) did not accede to the order of the speaker."

Zephyr remained defiant on Wednesday, telling the chamber that her "blood on your hands" comment was "not being hyperbolic."

"When the speaker asks me to apologize on behalf of decorum, what he is really asking me to do is be silent when my community is facing bills that get us killed," Zephyr said. "He is asking me to be complicit in this legislature's eradication of our community. And I refuse to do so."

The Democratic Party, the American Civil Liberties Union and LGBTQ advocates criticized the censure as undemocratic.

Republican legislators across the country have sought to ban certain healthcare for transgender youth. One tracker by a group of independent journalists says more than 500 bills have been introduced that they say would infringe on the rights of gender non-conforming people.

Such bills were once mostly limited to regulating changing rooms and women's sports but now also include limiting healthcare access for transgender adults and in some cases seek to charge parents and doctors with child abuse if they provide treatment.

Opponents of such treatment are skeptical of the major medical associations that support gender-affirming care, raising concerns that minors are too easily allowed to make such life-changing decisions.

© Reuters. Montana State Representative Zooey Zephyr leaves the House chamber after a motion to bar her passed, at the Montana State Capitol in Helena, Montana, U.S. April 26, 2023. Rep. Zephyr will still be able to vote on bills remotely.  REUTERS/Mike Clark

A similar break in decorum at a statehouse in Tennessee earlier this month led the Republican supermajority to expel two Democratic lawmakers who had protested in support of gun control, drawing national attention. They were promptly reappointed to their seats by their county legislatures and earned a trip to the White House.

(This story has been refiled to say 'your', not 'their', in paragraph 1)

Latest comments

Aerosmith said it best
Leave it to Missoula to elect someone so deluded they don't know basic science.
why are conservatives so sensitive. you guys litteraly call the left baby blood drinker whenever you guys can.
By calling abusive methods to minors “gender-affirming care” the supporters of this practices are framing the debate in terms that most people can support, but when you start going into the details people realize how extreme doing this to children is
Calling it medical care to give treatments with long term and irreversible effects to minors, whom are not in a position to make such life altering decisions is misleading at best. That said it should be left up to the parents, but the medical and mental health practitioners should be able to be held liable by the minor. Also, laws banning conversion therapy need to be applied both ways.
'... should be left up to the parents,' ...and there within is the problem. Sadly there are parents today (in the minority thankfully) that are pushing their children into 'life altering decisions', and so I think it's important that children are protected from their parents. However, when those children become adults, (preferably at an age of thirty, as that when the brain is fully developed) they can then make their own 'life altering decision' where importantly they should, by that time, have the necessary funds to cover the entire cost themselves.
Risk Disclosure: Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.
© 2007-2024 - Fusion Media Limited. All Rights Reserved.