Elected Transgender Democrat Zooey Zephyr Suspended for Opposition to Accessible Health Care for Transgender Minors in Montana Parliament

Zooey Zephyr, the only elected transgender Democrat in the Montana, is no longer authorized since Thursday to sit in the parliament of this state in the North of the United States. The reason ? His words and his vehement opposition to a law that makes transitional care inaccessible to minors. Already banned from speaking for almost a week, the elected transgender is now suspended until the end of the parliamentary session, according to a disciplinary measure approved by the Republican majority.

She can simply vote remotely. Local Republicans accuse him of remarks deemed not to respect protocol. Last week, the elected official felt that her colleagues should “be ashamed” of passing a law prohibiting the delivery to transgender minors of hormonal treatments to ensure their transition. “The next time (…) that you bow your head to pray, I hope you will see the blood on your hands”, had launched the elected official to the Republicans who adopted this text.

“I was not in the hyperbole”

Zooey Zephyr denounced her exclusion on Wednesday as an attack on democracy and the transgender community. “When I stood up to say there is blood on your hands, I was not hyperbole,” she insisted in a speech before the vote, saying that many transgender people commit suicide because of laws aimed at them.

She once again refused to apologize, which the Republican speaker of the local parliament demands to reinstate her. “If you use decorum to silence people who hold you accountable, you are only using decorum as a tool of oppression,” she argued.

The dispute, which sparked a protest in which seven people were arrested on Monday, is the latest example of a cultural battle between America’s two parties over the issue of transgender people. It comes just a few weeks after the controversial exclusion of two elected African-American Democrats of the Tennessee legislature in early April, for protesting gun violence. An episode that had pushed President Joe Biden to step up to obtain their reinstatement.

A decision that is “authoritarianism”

The civil rights association ACLU reacted on Wednesday to the suspension of Zooey Zephyr, denouncing a decision which is “authoritarianism”. More than 56% of transgender youth have had suicidal thoughts in their lifetime and 31% have made at least one suicide attempt, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Available studies on the subject show that these young people feel better when they have access to puberty blockers or hormonal treatments. But many Republicans denounce the irreversible effects of some of these treatments and want to ban them.

Since January, 29 new laws restricting the rights of transgender people have been passed in 14 US states, according to an analysis by the powerful civil rights association ACLU, published by the Washington Post.