Transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr was barred from attending the Montana House floor on Wednesday as Republican leaders voted Wednesday to silence her for the remainder of the 2023 session after protesting their decision to ban her from speaking earlier this week .

The action against the freshman legislator ends a week-long deadlock between House Democrats and Republicans after Zephyr told colleagues last week you’ll see the blood on your hands if you vote to ban gender-affirming medical care for children.

Zephyr can still vote remotely under the terms of the sentence.

In a defiant speech Wednesday before her colleagues voted, Zephyr addressed House Speaker Matt Regier directly and said she was standing up for the LGBTQ+ community, her constituents in Missoula and democracy itself.

Transgender MP Silenced by Republican House Speaker in Montana

She accused him of taking the votes of her 11,000 voters and trying to drive a nail into democracy’s coffin by silencing her.

If you use decorum to silence people you hold responsible, then you’re only using decorum as a means of oppression, Zephyr said.

governor

The house speaker

had previously said he wouldn’t let Zephy speak until she apologized

for her previous comments

which she refused to do.

For the past week, Zephyr has been banned from speaking on the House floor.

A protest against lawmakers silencing Zephyr disrupted Monday’s House session. Authorities arrested seven people in a confrontation Republicans claim Zephyr

had

encouraged. The first-term Democrat received notice Tuesday night from House leaders informing her of the plan to consider disciplinary action against her, according to a letter she posted on social media.

Montana transgender lawmaker is silenced again as backers erupt

I have also been told I will have a chance to speak,” Zephyr tweeted. “I will do what I have always done on behalf of my constituents, in defense of my community and for democracy itself.

The move to discipline Zephyr is the latest development in a deadlock over whether Montana Republicans will let the Missoula legislature speak unless she apologizes for her comments last week about the proposed ban. Conservative Republicans have repeatedly misrepresented Zephyr since the comments by using incorrect pronouns to describe her.

Just like events at the Tennessee Statehouse weeks ago, where state representatives. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two black legislators, were expelled after participating in a

shooting after school

The gun control protest that interrupted proceedings Zephyr’s sentence has sparked a firestorm of debate about governance and who has a voice in democracy in politically polarizing times.

If lawmakers vote to censor Zephyr, she would remain in the house, but could still be blocked from future attempts to speak on the chamber floor due to her previous comments.

The director canceled Tuesday’s in-depth session without explanation.

Montana House cancels session after arrests, meeting for transgender legislator

Republicans are redoubling their agenda to trample on Montana’s rights to free speech, to peaceful protest and to equal justice under the law,” Kim Abbott, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives (D-Helena), said of the plan to to punish Zephyr.

Zephyr’s comments and the Republican backlash set off a chain of events culminating in a rally outside the Capitol.

in the evening

on Monday. Protesters later packed up

go inside

the gallery of the Statehouse, halting House proceedings as she chanted, Let her speak. The scene provoked both her supporters and those who said her actions constitute an unacceptable attack on social discourse.

There was no such protest. There will be no such protest

to happen on Wednesday. Republican leaders said in the letter to Zephyr that the gallery would be closed to preserve decorum and ensure safety.

Speaker Matt Regier called the disruptions a black day for Montana.

At this point, all representatives are free to participate in House debates subject to House rules, Reger told reporters on Tuesday. The choice not to follow the House Rules is one that Rep. Zephyr made. The only person Rep. Zephyr to silence, Rep. Zephyr. The Montana House won’t be bullied.

It is under Regier’s leadership that the House has stopped Zephyr from speaking. He and other Republicans said her remark fell well outside the bounds of proper civil discourse and demanded that she apologize before being allowed to participate in legislative discussions.

Montana lawmakers pass a law to ban the social media app TikTok

There must be some consequences for what he did, said Representative Joe Read, who often, but not always, used incorrect pronouns when referring to Zephyr.

He claimed Zephyr sent a signal to her supporters just before Monday’s session was disrupted. He refused to say what that signal was, other than a strange movement.

“When she gave the signal to protesters to take action, I would say that was when the decorum was broken beyond belief,” Read added.

The events have demonstrated the growing power of the Montana Freedom Caucus, a group of at least 21 right-wing lawmakers, including Read, who have spearheaded the charge to discipline Zephyr. Reiterating its demands and rhetoric on Monday, the caucus said in a statement that Zephyr’s decision to hoist a microphone at protesters from the stand amounted to encouraging an uprising.”

While several protesters resisted law enforcement trying to arrest them Monday, Abbott balked at characterizing the activity as violent. She acknowledged that it was disruptive, but called the demonstration peaceful. She said public protests were a predictable response to a lawmaker representing more than 10,000 voters being barred from speaking and wondered if officers in riot gear were there to deal with the chanting protesters.

New law in North Dakota restricts bathroom access for transgender people

It was singing, but it was absolutely not violent,” she said. Sometimes extreme measures have such a reaction.”

There were no reports of damage to the building and lawmakers were not threatened.

Zephyr said the seven arrested were defending democracy.” In an earlier speech, she said the sequence of events that followed her remarks illustrated how they had struck a chord with those in power.

“They picked me right now because I said something that just went through their shields,” she told a crowd of supporters gathered on the steps of the Capitol at a banner that read Democracy Dies Here.

She has said she has no intention of apologizing and argued that her blood on your hands remark accurately reflected what is at stake in such bans on transgender children.

Metz reported from Salt Lake and Brown reported from Billings, Mont.