Montana statehouse Republicans recently censured Democratic transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr for breaking decorum during a heated debate over Senate Bill 99. The state measure seeks to ban transgender healthcare treatments for minors, including puberty blockers and hormones. The issue has escalated the national culture war over transgender rights, with lawmakers across the country seeking to limit healthcare access for transgender youth.
Zephyr, a first-term representative from Missoula, defended gender-affirming healthcare for minors during the debate, calling a ban “tantamount to torture” and warning that it could lead to more suicides. She also stated that lawmakers who backed the bill would have “blood on their hands,” leading to her being silenced within the chamber until she apologized.
Under the motion that passed with a vote of 68-32, Zephyr will be allowed to vote but is barred from the House floor, anteroom, or gallery for the remainder of the legislative session. Her supporters protested the move at the statehouse on Monday, leading to further disruptions.
Opponents of gender-affirming care argue that minors are too easily allowed to make such life-changing decisions, but Zephyr’s supporters say that denying such care is inhumane and could have deadly consequences. The Democratic Party, the American Civil Liberties Union, and LGBTQ advocates have criticized the censure as undemocratic.
Republican legislators across the country have introduced over 500 bills that would infringe on the rights of gender non-conforming people, including limiting healthcare access for transgender adults and charging parents and doctors with child abuse if they provide treatment. Such bills were once limited to regulating changing rooms and women’s sports but have since expanded to include healthcare restrictions.
The situation in Montana is part of a broader trend in statehouses across the country, where social issues are increasingly being used as political weapons in the ongoing culture war.