US state Republicans bans trans lawmaker for rest of legislative session

Washington, April 27

The Republican-majority House of Representatives in Montana has barred Zooey Zephyr, the first openly transgender woman elected to the US state's legislature, from attending the remainder of this year's legislative session over her remarks that lawmakers who backed a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors would have "blood on your hands".

Under the disciplinary measure approved on a 68-32 vote on Wednesday, the 34-year-old Democrat will be allowed to retain her seat and cast votes remotely, but will not be able to participate in debates, reports CNN.

The session is scheduled to end next week.

"We have a week and a half left of the session, and we'll be covering important topics -- housing bills, the state's budget -- and every bill that goes forward for the remainder of this session, there will be 11,000 Montanans whose representative is missing, whose voices cannot be heard on those bills," Zephyr told CNN on Wednesday evening.

The development comesafter Republicans accused her of stoking violence and violating the chamber's decorum with her comment.

On April 18, Zephyr registered her opposition to a proposed bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth in Montana, reports the BBC.

"I hope the next time there's an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands," she had said in reference to the high rates of suicide risk among transgender youth and adults.

Montana House Majority Leader Sue Vinton, the Republican who sponsored the resolution to ban the lawmaker, said on the floor on Wednesday that Zephyr had "encouraged the continuation of the disruption of this body, placing legislators, staff and even our pages at the risk of harm".

"Freedom in this body involves obedience to all the rules of this body, including the rules of decorum," CNN quoted Vinton as saying.

Zephyr, who was given five minutes to address the chamber ahead of the vote, said Republicans who hold a super-majority in Montana's House and Senate were using decorum as a "tool of oppression" and said his restrictions on her speech and of protesters supporting her were a "nail in the coffin of democracy"

But, she added, "you cannot kill democracy that easily".

Wednesday's development comes just weeks after Tennessee Republicans voted to expel two black Democrats who led protests on the legislature floor in favour of gun safety in the days following a mass shooting in a Nashville school.