By Amy Beth Hanson and Matthew Brown | Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. — Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr asked a court Monday to allow for her return to the House floor after she was silenced and barred for chiding her Republican colleagues over legislation to restrict gender-affirming health care and for encouraging protesters.
Attorneys for the first-term lawmaker sued in state district court in Helena on behalf of Zephyr, a transgender Democrat who represents a liberal district in the college town of Missoula, and several constituents who the attorneys said were being denied their right to adequate representation.
Zephyr, whose comments in the Montana Legislature have made her a prominent figure in transgender rights and in conversations about the muffling of dissent in statehouses, said in a statement Monday that she and her constituents were targeted “because I dared to give voice to the values and needs of transgender people like myself.”
The legal challenge against House Speaker Matt Regier and statehouse Sergeant-at-Arms Bradley Murfitt comes with just days left in the Legislature’s biennial session. Murfitt said he would not comment on the lawsuit, and Regier did not return telephone messages and an email seeking comment.
Residents of the Missoula area said in declarations filed as part of the lawsuit that they wanted Zephyr to be heard in the Legislature.
Anna Wong, who lives in Missoula County with her transgender child, said she backed Zephyr in the 2022 election with the expectation that lawmaker would “speak out against the onslaught of bills targeting transgender youth.”
“Suicide amongst transgender youth is not imaginary,” Wong said. “It is not a game and it is not a political foil. It is real. It is heartbreaking. And it is the responsibility of my representative to speak out against bills promoting it.”
Zephyr’s attorneys hoped to get a ruling as quickly as possible on their request for a temporary restraining order…
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