By Amy Beth Hanson, Brittany Peterson and Sam Metz | Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana’s Zooey Zephyr spent her first day in legislative exile Thursday on a bench just outside the House chambers from which Republicans voted to banish her a day earlier.
Zephyr, a transgender lawmaker from Missoula, defiantly stayed put even after Republicans said she couldn’t be there and a Capitol police officer threatened to move the bench, where she had set up her laptop to vote remotely.
As cameras snapped and espresso beans churned in a machine behind a nearby snack bar, Zephyr and Democratic leaders said she would remain in the public eye unless Republicans elected to further restrict where she could go in the Capitol.
“There are many more eyes on Montana now,” Zephyr said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But you do the same thing you’ve always done. You stand up in defense of your community and you … stand for the principles that they elected you to stand for.”
Republicans had wanted Zephyr to participate from behind the doors of the House Minority’s offices a day after they voted to ban her from the House floor for the rest of the session.
The motion Republicans passed bans Zephyr from the House, the gallery and a waiting room, but not the public space in the hall where she set up. Minority Leader Kim Abbott said the lawmaker would be voting there, within public view. Abbott said she told Regier that if he wanted to further restrict Zephyr’s access, he could amend the motion.
Zephyr was thrust into the national spotlight last week when she was prevented from speaking in the House after telling lawmakers backing a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors that they would have blood on their hands.
The Republican response to her comments, and her refusal to apologize for them as demanded, have transformed the lawmaker into a prominent figure in the nationwide battle for transgender rights and placed her at the…
Read the full article here