Editorial: Another Republican legislature expels a Democrat, citing 'decorum.' That's rich
2023/04/28
The Montana Capitol in Helena, Montana. - Matt Volz/KHN/TNS
For the second time in less than a month, a Republican-controlled state legislature has blocked a Democratic lawmaker from its chamber, misapplying decorum rules as punishment for policy differences. The Montana House’s floor ban of a transgender legislator who gave an impassioned speech against a transgender medical ban — like the recent expulsions of two Tennessee House members for protesting gun policies — appear to be the next trend from a political party that has all but declared that it’s done with democracy.
In some ways, the ban from the legislative floor of Democratic Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr, who is transgender, is even less defensible than the earlier expulsion of the two Tennessee lawmakers for participating in a demonstration with gun violence protesters on the House floor. Zephyr, in contrast, is being punished for speaking.
After a speech last week in which Zephyr accused the ruling Republicans of having “blood on your hands” for banning gender-affirming care for minors, House leaders responded by cutting off her microphone and refusing to let her speak on any issue. A protest by her supporters resulted in seven arrests, but Zephyr’s own infraction was verbal. When House leadership this week finally gave her permission to address the issue, and she doubled down on her criticism of them, they responded by banishing her from the House floor for the remainder of the current session, citing decorum rules. Zephyr will be allowed to vote remotely on bills, but the Republicans’ goal — to silence a voice of dissent during legislative debate — has been achieved.
The episode sends a chilling message about the GOP’s growing contempt for the norms of democracy. Republican supermajority legislatures have decided they can violate those norms with impunity, whether to avoid blame for mass shootings spurred by the GOP’s bullheaded refusal to consider even the mildest gun safety legislation, or to ensure that their politically driven persecution of transgender medical care isn’t called out as the cynical and dangerous demagoguery that it is.
This strain of anti-democracy is spreading through statehouses in other ways as well. In Missouri, ruling Republicans have flouted the will of the voters repeatedly on issues like Medicaid expansion and political reform. And they are currently attempting to make the voters’ will more difficult to express through ballot referendums — because they know most Missourians disagree with their draconian new abortion ban and would vote it down if given the chance.
The Montana episode also drives home just how situational this sudden GOP obsession with “decorum” is. This is the party, after all, that was just fine with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert heckling a president throughout a State the Union speech, and which continues to downplay the seriousness of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. The party of Donald Trump is no position to lecture anyone about decorum.
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© St. Louis Post-Dispatch
'Civility is gone': Silencing of transgender lawmaker shows shift in MontanaUPI
Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, was banned from speaking on the House floor. She is the first openly transgender person elected to the Legislature. Photo courtesy of Montana Legislature
April 28 (UPI) -- The silencing of a transgender lawmaker in Montana this week illuminates a political shift to the right that has been building since the election of former President Donald Trump, local politicians and observers say.
"We've had a long tradition of civility. Of bipartisanship and neighborliness," said Jordan Hess, mayor of Missoula, hometown of Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat who was booted from the legislative session on Wednesday.
"I have been really alarmed in the last couple of years by this move away from civility. There's a sense across the board that civility is gone from the Statehouse."
The Capitol building in Helena has been the site of protests since House Speaker Matt Regier disallowed Zephyr from speaking on the House floor.
RELATEDTransgender Montana lawmaker faces 'disciplinary consequences' after protest
Zephyr, who represents about 11,000 constituents in the 100th district, was remanded by the speaker over a comment made while debating S.B. 99, a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans youth.
Zephyr was elected to the House in 2022, the first openly transgender person elected to the state Legislature.
During the debate on April 18, Zephyr said lawmakers who vote to pass S.B. 99 will have "blood on your hands." On Wednesday, Zephyr was banned from debate on the House floor for the remainder of the session. She continued to work from a hallway bench in the Capitol.
In a statement posted to Twitter on Tuesday, Regier said all representatives are free to participate in debate "while following House rules."
"The choice to not follow House rules is one that Rep. Zephyr has made," the statement reads. "The only person silencing Rep. Zephyr is Rep. Zephyr."
S.B. 99 has been passed and sent to Gov. Greg Gianforte to be signed into law. It is just one of an unprecedented number of proposals in the state legislature that target the rights of the LGBTQ community. The Montana Human Rights Network is tracking dozens of bills that it has dubbed the "Slate of Hate."
"Since the Montana legislature gaveled into session in January, it has been a bottomless source of extreme anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and rampant misinformation," MHRN said in a statement.
The events in Montana follow the expulsion of two Tennessee legislators for protesting in favor of gun control on the floor. They were quickly reinstated by local officials. And other states are also moving to restrict transgender rights, including Florida, Kansas, Idaho and Indiana.
'Slate of Hate'
Montana's S.B. 99, called the "Youth Health Protection Act," bans minors from receiving hormone therapy, puberty blockers or surgical treatments. Healthcare providers who perform any of these treatments are made liable for any "physical, psychological, emotional or physiological harms" the patient experiences in the following 25 years.
Andy Nelson, executive director of the Western Montana LGBTQ+ Community Center, said Zephyr's statement about this bill may have been alarming, but it was also important to make clear how harmful this type of law would be to transgender youth.
According to the National Institutes of Health, 82% of trans youth consider suicide and 40% have attempted suicide.
"She is being silenced for speaking her opinion on the gender-affirming care bill. It might be an alarming statement, but she was speaking truth to power," Nelson said of Zephyr in an interview with UPI.
"What's disheartening is this type of legislation is not what the constituents of Montana want to see. Even if more conservative people don't necessarily view the LGBTQ community in a positive light -- they don't want to see our rights taken away."
S.B. 458, an act that revises the definition of "sex" in state law, has also sparked concern for advocates of the LGBTQ community. Federal law often fits gender under the umbrella term "sex." The language of this act seeks to more clearly differentiate "sex" from "gender," stating "in human beings, there are exactly two sexes, male and female, with two corresponding types of gametes."
Critics of this act, which was sponsored by Rep. Carl Glimm, R-Kila, say it will do more than revise language. As written, it may be interpreted to remove protection from discrimination for intersex, transgender and nonbinary people by erasing them from the state code.
In a Senate Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee hearing earlier this month, Glimm said the bill is necessary because sex and gender can no longer be considered synonymous.
"You might be asking yourself, 'Why is this bill even necessary?'" Glimm said. "We've heard bills this session about the purported existence of multiple genders, gender fluidity, gender expression and transgenderism. That's not what this bill is about. We need to draw a clear distinction between sex and gender, and that's what this bill does."
Proponents of the bill like Jay Richards, director at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said during the hearing that the bill will protect women's sports and women's privacy in public restrooms and locker rooms.
Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, asked Glimm to explain how to reconcile the "pain and suffering" that could result from the bill with why the bill is needed. He also wanted to know what problem this bill is a solution to.
"It's about being factual and being real. Sex is something that's defined and you can't change," Glimm responded. "When we use that in law -- we need to be specific about those definitions and we need to be deliberate."
S.K. Rossi of the Human Rights Campaign. speaking in opposition, said the bill will force transgender, nonbinary and two-spirit people to misgender themselves or risk perjury or fraud in legal contexts. It also conflicts with the state and U.S. Constitution, which consider discrimination against a transgender person as sex discrimination.
"The law violates a myriad of rights -- including the rights to dignity, privacy and equal protection, by discriminating against intersex, trans and nonbinary people on the basis of sex," they said. "Trans and nonbinary people would not be able to have valid wills under this law."
S.B. 99 is in the process of considering a second round of House amendments.
Moving to the right
Montana has long leaned Republican, but the conversations in Helena have not historically mirrored national talking points, said Jeremy Johnson, associate professor of political science at Carroll College. Only in recent years, since the rise of former President Donald Trump as a political figure, have lawmakers in Montana spent such an effort on national issues.
Local issues normally take precedence, Johnson said. Montana has voted for a Republican for president in every cycle since 1996, but Democrats still had success across the state by campaigning on local issues.
"The rural areas have gotten more Republican," Johnson told UPI. "The national issues have trumped the local issues that Democrats run effectively on."
Johnson explained that the appeal of Trump has drawn some of those rural voters who may not have been as politically engaged to the polls and ignited a vigor in them that had not existed before. Though what it is that appeals to them is harder to identify.
"He's the most 'big city' president we've had but his strength is in rural areas," he said of Trump. "He's rejected the old way of doing politics. The anti-Chinese rhetoric appeals to some of those 'America first' ideals. Projecting American strength appeals to voters in Montana. He's drawn people in in ways that were not anticipated."
In 2020, Republicans were dominant up and down the ballot, even in precincts that have typically voted Democrat. In the 2022 midterms, Republicans won 34 Senate seats to 16 for Democrats. In the House, Republicans won 68 seats to the Democrats' 32.
As Democrats have lost ground in Montana, its Republican Party has shifted even further toward the right and further away from bipartisanship, Johnson said.
Former Gov. Marc Racicot, a Republican, has been "disowned" by the party for being critical of Trump.
Rep. Mallerie Stromswold resigned from the House in January over the backlash she received from Republican colleagues for voting against anti-LGBTQ bills in the previous session.
In an interview with UPI, Stromswold said her beliefs no longer fit within the Republican Party in Montana or nationally. Her goal as a representative was to serve her constituents and those constituents resoundingly rejected the anti-LGBTQ legislation that was put in front of her, leading to her "no" votes.
"I, like many Montanans, believe in small, limited government. This is a fundamental belief that I've carried throughout my life, and quite frankly, I think these pieces of legislation directly violated that principle," Stromswold said. "I believe in delegate-style representation, which was something that was not supported by my colleagues during my time of service."
The 2022 midterms earned the Republican Party a super majority with two-thirds of the caucus and a Republican governor, opening the door for bills that have been voted down in past years to potentially be signed into law.
With the changes to the political landscape in Montana, Johnson finds it harder to get a bead on what comes next.
"The stuff I learned in grad school doesn't apply," he said.
'Tradition of civility'
Back in Missoula, Hess has shown solidarity with his duly-elected representative, issuing a joint statement of support with Missoula County Commissioners Josh Slotnick, Juanita Vero and Dave Strohmaier. They wrote that she "boldly stood up for all Montanans, including the LGBTQ+ community."
Hess called the silencing of Zephyr "anti-democratic" in an interview with UPI.
"It is just absolutely disgraceful to take away the voice of an elected representative, and by extension, that of her constituents," he said. "These actions in the last week are a gut punch to democracy."
The tone and timbre at the Capitol do not reflect what Montanans like Hess have been accustomed to. At least not until the last seven years.
More than 80 days into the legislative session, Nelson and Hess agree it has been the most divisive they have seen. The polarization sparked by the volume of anti-trans bills in particular has created disagreement between Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and his son David Gianforte, who has tried to lobby his father against S.B. 99, S.B. 458 and H.B. 359's "drag show ban."
David Gianforte identifies as nonbinary.
Johnson said the silencing of Zephyr is unlike anything he has ever seen. However, he does not believe this brand of governance is sustainable.
"This sensationalist governing with cable news always in the background -- it's not practical," he said. "Will people really continue to go to the logical extremes on these things or will they simmer down toward what we can call normal? Stay tuned."
The Montana Republican Party, Glimm, Regier and Zephyr did not respond to requests for comment.
If you or someone you know is suicidal, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
