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Montana G.O.P. Bars Transgender Lawmaker From House Floor [1]
['Jim Robbins', 'Remy Tumin', 'Jacey Fortin']
Date: 2023-04-26
On Tuesday, Republican leaders canceled a planned session of the House, a day after protests led to arrests in the chamber. In a hasty news conference, Speaker Matt Regier blamed Ms. Zephyr for the conflict, saying that “the only person who is silencing Representative Zephyr is Representative Zephyr.”
Legislators started Wednesday’s session with a final reading of bills before turning to the status of Ms. Zephyr, who spoke from the House floor for the first time in a week. The gallery was closed to the public, but the session was broadcast online.
Ms. Zephyr remained unapologetic about her choice of words, and repeated her position.
“When I rose up and said, ‘There is blood on your hands,’ I was not being hyperbolic. I was speaking to the real consequences of the votes that we as legislators take in this body,” she said. She added that when Mr. Regier refused to let her speak, he was also “driving a nail in the coffin of democracy.”
Mr. Regier allowed for six representatives — three Democrats and three Republicans — to speak to the motion and allotted each five minutes to speak. Ms. Vinton, the House majority leader, closed her motion by saying that Ms. Zephyr’s conduct “cannot be allowed to stand.”
“Our constituents and our state deserve better. They deserve our full attention, and this institution and body deserve the respect of all its members,” Ms. Vinton said. “However it has not been respected, and we must regain the decorum of this body, not only now but also to set precedent for the future.”
Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy groups, said in a statement on Wednesday that the vote in Montana “was part of a deeply disturbing trend of legislatures punishing leaders for using their voices to protest against discriminatory and dangerous legislation.”
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/us/zooey-zephyr-transgender-montana-house.html
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