Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr: 'I took this battle to court because my constituents deserve representation'
ust over a week ago, Montana’s Republican-majority House banned Rep. Zooey Zephyr from in-person debates and voting for the remainder of the 2023 session.
Zephyr isn’t the only Democratic state lawmaker to face discipline in recent months. In March, Oklahoma Republicans formally censured Rep. Mauree Turner, the first openly nonbinary state legislator in U.S. history and first Muslim lawmaker in Oklahoma. In April, Tennessee Republicans expelled two Black House Democrats—Zephyr spoke with TIME over Zoom on Tuesday morning from Helena, Montana.
I took this battle to court because my constituents deserve representation. When the speaker refused to recognize me, he took away not only my right as a legislator to partake in speech and debate on the floor, but also the voice of the people who elected me. And that is an attack on the very first principles of our country. That is an attack on democracy.
The pressures are twofold. First: a lack of understanding from a legislature that has not had a trans woman in those halls before. The second challenge is the political force that the far-right is exerting over the members of this state and country. You have people who don’t understand what it means to be trans, who don’t understand the need for this health care or the joy that comes when trans people get to live our lives.
Do you see any parallels between what happened to you and what happened to Reps. Justin Pearson and Justin Jones in Tennessee? Rep. Turner was someone I called during my campaign. I asked them: as a non-binary person who will be in a red state, what was your experience?
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