The Montana House speaker on Thursday refused to allow a transgender lawmaker to speak on bills on the House floor until she apologized for lawmakers having blood on their hands. said.

Rep. Zooey Zephyr, who was deliberately referenced for using male pronouns by some conservative lawmakers who demanded her censure, said she will not apologize, creating a stalemate between the first-term legislator and Republican legislative leaders.

Speaker Matt Regier declined to recognize Zephyr on Thursday when she wanted to comment on a bill to include a binary definition of man and woman in the state code.

It’s up to me to maintain decorum here on the house floor, to protect dignity and integrity, Regier said Thursday. And any representative that I don’t think can do that will not be recognized.

Regier said the decision came after multiple discussions with other lawmakers and that there had been similar issues before.

Democrats objected to Regier’s decision, but the house rules

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Ommittee and the House upheld his decision on party-line voting.

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Hate-filled testimony has no place on the house floor, Republican Caleb Hinkle, a member of the Montana Freedom Caucus who demanded the censorship, said in a statement.

Zephyr said she stands by what she said about the consequences of banning essential medical care for transgender youth.

The bill would ban transgender minors in Montana from taking puberty blockers, sex hormones or surgical procedures. Those are treatments for gender dysphoria, the clinically significant distress caused by a sense that one’s gender identity does not match one’s biological sex. Medical professionals who provide such care will lose their medical license for at least a year.

When there are bills targeting the LGBTQ community, I stand up to defend my community, Zephyr said. And I chose my words with clarity and precision and I spoke about the real damage these bills are doing.

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Republican Governor Greg Gianforte has indicated that he will sign the bill.

The director also refused to acknowledge Zephyr on Thursday when she called to discuss another bill, which had nothing to do with LGBTQ+ issues and is intended to reimburse hotels that shelter victims of human trafficking.

The speaker refuses to allow me to participate in the debate until I retract my statements during the floor debate or apologize, Zephyr said.

The issue came to a head on Tuesday when Zephyr, the first transgender woman to hold a position in the Montana legislature, referred to the floor session’s opening prayer when she told lawmakers if they supported the bill, I hope the next time there is an incantation is, when you bow your heads in prayer, you will see the blood on your hands.

She had made a similar comment when the House first debated the bill.

House Majority Leader Sue Vinton reprimanded Zephyr on Tuesday, calling her comments inappropriate, disrespectful and inappropriate.

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Later, the Montana Freedom Caucus made its censure demand in a letter calling for commitment to civil discourse in the same sense where it deliberately misrepresented it

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. The caucus also misused Zephyr in a

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know while posting the letter online.

It is disheartening that the Montana Freedom Caucus would sink so low as to misinterpret me in their letter, further demonstrating their disregard for the dignity and humanity of transgender people, Zephyr said in a statement Wednesday.

Zephyr also spoke emotionally and directly to transgender Montanans in February when he opposed a bill to ban minors from attending drag shows.

I have one request for you: Please live, Zephyr then said, assuring them that she and others would continue to fight and take the bills to court.

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The legislature also passed a bill stating that a student misnaming or renaming a fellow student is not unlawful discrimination unless it rises to the level of bullying. Deadnaming is calling a transgender person by their previous name when they have changed their name as part of their gender reassignment.

At the end of Thursday’s House session, Democratic Representative Marilyn Marler asked that the House majority allow Zephyr to speak in the future.

This body is denying the representative … the chance to do her job, Marler said.

Majority Leader Vinton, before going for suspension, said, I will let the body know that the representative has every opportunity to rectify the situation.

The House will meet again on Friday afternoon.