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Montana Democrats Persuade Republicans to Kill Anti-Trans Bills [1]
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Date: 2025-03-12
Two Montana legislators, Rep. Zephyr and Rep. Howell (who are themselves trans people) managed to get several Republican legislators — 29 of them — to vote against two pieces of anti-trans legislation being considered by the Montana legislature. Their floor speeches are an excellent example of what political courage looks like, and you can find them here:
www.erininthemorning.com/...
They are well worth the time to watch.
But more than a rare triumph of sanity in this dumbest of timelines, this story is very illustrative of why it’s important for Democrats to run candidates in every district for every office in every election. In Montana, Republicans have dominant majorities at all levels of state government, and the GOP governor would have gladly signed this garbage into law.
If there had been no voices speaking clearly and intelligently in opposition, these harmful policies would likely become law in the state. (And they were truly awful — one of the bills would allow trans kids to be taken away from their parents by Child Protective Services).
But despite being in the minority and having little or no power in terms of raw vote numbers, these brave lawmakers do have a voice and they chose to use it effectively. Such outcomes are not guaranteed, and the vote could have gone the other way. But if nobody is there to offer an opposing view, then the outcome is virtually assured. You can’t win if your team doesn’t have anyone on the field.
In addition to illustrating the importance of representation, this story also shows something more.
I’ve been seeing a lot of voices (here on DK and in other places) insisting that Democrats need to “quiet down about the whole trans thing.” The narrative goes that we lost too many votes because we were focused on They/Them rather than the price of eggs or something. This kind of either/or binary (pun intended) idea fails because it suggests that Democrats are choosing to get behind an issue that doesn’t really need their attention, or that supporting the trans community somehow comes at the expense of supporting fair taxes, strong social supports, or democracy. Not only can and should we do both, but it denies a hard reality: If there were not constant Republican attacks on the trans community, it wouldn’t be necessary for Democrats (or anyone) to defend them. If there weren’t so many arsonists, we wouldn’t have to devote time and energy toward putting out fires. Democrats would be free to choose any particular issue that they like, and focus on it with the confidence that other issues would be able to patiently wait their turn. But there are arsonists, and our choice is to either let them burn things down or try to stop them. Because they won’t stop on their own.
Democrats like Zephyr and Howell might be more deeply qualified to speak on trans rights than anyone, but I don’t expect that they have tunnel vision. They will be there to support things like fair taxes, Medicaid, fair elections, and other Democratic priorities when we need them. They’re on our team, and when they and their community — which really is our community — needs us we should be there to support them as well.
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[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/12/2309633/-Montana-Democrats-Persuade-Republicans-to-Kill-Anti-Trans-Bills?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
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