![]() It’s undemocratic,” White House Press Secretary Kaine Jean-Pierre said Thursday. “Silencing an elected representative, in an attempt to suppress their messages, is a denial of democratic values. The Republican response to her comments, and her refusal to apologize for them as demanded, have transformed Zephyr into a prominent figure in the nationwide battle for transgender rights and placed her at the center of the ongoing debate over the muffling of dissent in statehouses. ![]() Zephyr did not back down, instead participating in a protest that disrupted Monday’s House session as observers in the gallery chanted, “Let her speak!” - an action that led to Wednesday’s vote to banish her from the floor. The phrase has been used recurrently by both Republicans and Democrats discussing the nation’s most polarizing issues, but Montana House leaders said they would block Zephyr from participating further in the debate until she apologized for saying it. ![]() The showdown began last week, when Zephyr told lawmakers backing a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors that they would have blood on their hands. Minority Leader Kim Abbott said the lawmaker would be voting there, within public view. The motion Republicans passed bars Zephyr from the marble-pillared House, the gallery above it and a waiting room, but not the public space in the hall where she set up. You stand up in defense of your community and you … stand for the principles that they elected you to stand for.” “But you do the same thing you’ve always done. “There are many more eyes on Montana now,” Zephyr said. “I walked out yesterday with my head held high and I walked in with my head held high today, ready to do my job,” Zephyr told The Associated Press.Īs cameras snapped and espresso beans churned in a machine nearby, Zephyr and Democratic leaders promised she would remain in the public eye unless Republicans elected to further limit where she could go in the Capitol. Republicans moved to sideline Zephyr further by shutting down the two committees she serves on and moving the bills they were to hear to other committees, Democratic Rep. Her refusal to do so came as Democrats sought to keep Zephyr’s banishment in plain view after a week’s worth of nationwide public scrutiny over Republicans’ unprecedented actions to silence her, which continued Thursday. Republicans had wanted Zephyr to participate from behind the doors of the House Minority’s offices a day after they voted to ban her from the House floor for the rest of the session, which ends early next week. The note was placed there by transgender and nonbinary Rep. She listened to debate and voted remotely from there, with a gold sticky note on the wall above her head that read “Seat 31,” her seat assignment in the house. Zephyr defiantly stayed put even after the Republican House speaker said she couldn’t be there and a House security officer threatened to move the bench where she had set up her laptop. (AP) - Montana transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr spent her first day in legislative exile Thursday relegated to a bench in a noisy hallway across from a snack bar outside the state House chambers where she is no longer allowed. Business & Finance Click to expand menu.
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