Rep. Zooey Zephyr looks on from the House floor during a session at the Montana State Capitol in Helena, Mont., on April 26, 2023.
A measure to bar Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the state’s first transgender legislator, from using the women’s restroom at the State Capitol failed to pass the House Rules Committee on Tuesday, with several Republicans voting against it.
The measure, introduced by Republican Rep. Jerry Schillinger, would have required state legislators to use the restrooms of their birth sexes.
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The measure “says what probably shouldn’t need to be said and puts into rules what probably shouldn’t need to be put into rules,” Schillinger said Tuesday at a meeting of the Joint House and Senate Rules Committees ahead of Montana’s next legislative session in January.
The proposal, which needed support from a majority of both committees to pass, failed, with the Senate committee voting 11-7 in favor and the House committee voting 10-12 against.
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Zephyr — who drew international attention and became a nationally recognized face among the LGBTQ community last year when she was censured in the Montana Legislature — thanked her colleagues who voted against the measure in a statement on social media.
“I’m happy to see that this proposed ban failed and am grateful for my colleagues—particularly my republican colleagues—who recognized this as a distraction from the work we were elected to do,” Zephyr wrote on X. “I’m ready to represent my constituents and look forward to working on behalf of the people of Montana.”
Rep. David Bedey was among the four Republicans who voted against the measure, arguing that the Legislature’s rules are intended to allow the body to act on behalf of Montanans in an efficient manner.
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“This particular action will have the effect of making people famous in the national news and will not contribute to the effective conduct of our business,” Bedey said before Tuesday’s vote. He added that restroom access wasn’t an issue for the female legislators he spoke with in the last legislative session.
Rep. Brad Barker, also a Republican, agreed with Bedey, saying the issue was becoming “a distraction.”
Republican Rep. Jedediah Hinkle supported the measure, saying that the Legislature has only one trans legislator but that it could have more in the future.
“I think it’s time this body addresses this issue now as they are addressing it nationally,” he said. “We need to set that precedent right now that women have their spaces and they need to be comfortable in those spaces, and I think we ought to stand up for them.”
Hinkle appeared to be alluding to a recent debate in the U.S. Capitol following Delaware’s election of Sarah McBride, who will become the country’s first openly transgender member of Congress next month.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., introduced a resolution last month to prohibit any lawmakers and House employees from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.” In remarks that misgendered her, Mace told reporters that the measure was, indeed, intended to target McBride, adding that she is “absolutely 100% going to stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a women’s restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms.”
She added, “I will be there fighting you every step of the way.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he supports Mace’s effort, though his statement of support doesn’t formally change the rules package for the new congressional session, which starts in January.
On Nov. 20, McBride responded to Mace’s proposal and Johnson’s response, writing on X: “I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families. Like all members, I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them.
She added, “This effort to distract from the real issues facing this country hasn’t distracted me over the last several days, as I’ve remained hard at work preparing to represent the greatest state in the union come January.”
In the days following McBride’s statement, Zephyr encouraged her not to “cede ground.”
“When we see policies targeting trans women just trying to live their lives in the restroom, trying to play sports with their friends — that is not where the hate stops from the right,” Zephyr said in an interview with Scripps News at the time. “That hate is on display at every moment, which is why it’s important for us to resist these efforts to target our community.”
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