State Rep. Zooey Zephyr sits in a hallway outside the main chamber of the House, from which she has been barred for the rest of the session.Brittany Peterson/AP
Last week, the Republican-controlled Montana House of Representatives voted to bar Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the state’s first transgender woman lawmaker, from the floor for the rest of the session. Her offense? Telling GOP lawmakers that they had “blood on their hands” for supporting a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors.
Zephyr’s expulsion from the floor is the latest example of a Republican-run state legislature wielding its supermajority to silence democratically elected lawmakers under the guise of “decorum.”
Montana Republicans say that Zephyr isn’t being exiled, because she will still be able to vote remotely. But the American Civil Liberties Union disagrees—and is helping Zephyr sue.
The lawsuit aims to allow Zephyr to return to the House floor, arguing that the House leadership has denied Zephyr’s constituents their right to representation in state government.
“The effort by House leadership to silence me and my constituents is a disturbing and terrifying affront to democracy itself,” Zephyr said in a statement. “The Montana State House is the people’s House, not Speaker Regier’s, and I’m determined to defend the right of the people to have their voices heard.”
