Transgender Montana Lawmaker Will Not Be Allowed to Speak on House Floor Until Apologizing for Hateful Comments About Republicans
Transgender Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr will not be allowed to speak on the House floor until he apologizes for making hateful comments about Republicans.
Zephyr is a biological male who “identifies” as a woman.
Zephyr is a biological male who “identifies” as a woman.
The lawmaker had claimed that Republicans would have “blood on their hands” if they supported a bill to ban sex change surgeries and potentially-sterilizing hormone treatments for minors.
“This body should be ashamed,” Zephyr said while speaking about the bill on the House floor on Tuesday. “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 also claimed that the bill is “tantamount to torture.”
Montana’s House Speaker Matt Regier said he would “not recognize” Zephyr to speak on any bill until an apology is made for the lack of decorum.
“It is up to me to maintain decorum here on the House floor, to protect the dignity and integrity,” Regier said Thursday, according to a report from the Associated Press. “And any representative that I don’t feel can do that will not be recognized.”
On Thursday, Zephyr attempted to speak about an amended bill that set a binary definition of male and female into the state code — but was not allowed to do so. He was also not recognized to speak about a bill that would reimburse hotels that provide shelter to victims of human trafficking.
“The speaker is refusing to allow me to participate in debate until I retract or apologize for my statements made during floor debate,” Zephyr told the AP.
Zephyr has also said that he will not apologize for his comments.
“Hate-filled testimony has no place on the House floor,” Republican Rep. Caleb Hinkle of the Montana Freedom Caucus said in a statement while demanding Zephyr be censured.
The trangender first-term lawmaker responded by complaining about being “misgendered.”
“It is disheartening that the Montana Freedom Caucus would stoop so low as to misgender me in their letter, further demonstrating their disregard for the dignity and humanity of transgender individuals,” Zephyr said in a statement.
