Thread by @ErinInTheMorn

In 3 minutes, Montana will be debating and voting on the House floor a "right to bully" trans people.

It will give students the right to use trans people's deadnames and misgender them openly.

Follow along with me. 🧵

As always, I am an independent journalist and activist covering anti-trans legislation. I can only do this with support from people like you.

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You can follow along with me at this link to the MT Legislature House Floor:

sg001-harmony.sliq.net/00309/Harmony/…

Proponents of the bill will state that they have a provision that states that "conduct rising to bullying is not protected by this bill."

That will be VERY much dependent on the teachers and administrators, who can be very guilty of bullying themselves.

The bill is also unconstitutional in that it creates a special carveout for transgender people. It doesn't address any number of other reasons someone may use a different name, like nicknames, or not identifying with the name of an abusive parent.

We begin now with prayers:

This bill is particularly cruel in the wake of Brianna Ghey's death with recent facts of her years of transphobic bullying at her school.

House bill 361 is the one to watch by the way.

We are at ease for 10 minutes while Republicans and Democrats caucus for the impending fight over this bill.

I'll stick around.

Side note: I have Covid and a 7 year old to tend to so please give me a little grace if my updates seem slower than usual <3

Legislators are returning to their seats now

We're starting off with a "nondiscrimination of firearms users" bill...

Because of course we are.

Honestly I didn't know about this firearms bill but it sounds pretty bad.

Interestingly enough there are a few other bills similar to this one that say if you give trans care you can't contract with the state government.

We are on the bill now. Get ready.

HB 361: "It is not a discriminatory practice to call a student by the student's legal name or the student's biological sex"

It's a right to bully bill.

Here's the man responsible for this bill:

Rep Zephyr:

"I rise in strong opposition because of the harm that it causes"

"We heard testimony in committee about someone whose given name was the name of their abusive father, and they did not want to be called that name"

"One of the communities directly impacted, surprise surprise by me standing up, is trans people"

"This is inherently discriminatory. This would not prohibit the language on cisgender people vs transgender people."

"In my time in this body, I have watched 50 members deftly dodge my pronouns, but nobody in this body has called me a man. Because we recognize its unkind and out of decorum. We treat people here with dignity, we expect it here, and we should expect it in our schools."

Non-binary representative Howell also mentions the expectation of decorum.

This Republican is expecting accolades for gendering the trans reps correctly while also voting for this bill. Garbage.

Rep who was once bullied for her name recounts her experience with kids saying “What’s wrong, that’s your name, it’s not bullying bullying.”

This bill is shameful.

This representative is using what happened in Kiel, Wisconsin as a reason for this bill.

Libs of TikTok targeted Kiel, Wisconsin after 3 kids were suspected of bullying a trans kid.

Then the school came under bomb threats for a month shutting it down.

Republican representative: "We are under no obligation to be kind to one another and kids are not obliged to."

What kind of world is this guy trying to build...

He really IS advocating for freedom to bully.

Like this dude is straight up saying "yeah it's a right to bully and that's cool"

This guy here wants to claim that he's against compelled speech.

Bet he is totally for forced outings or for requiring parental permission for teachers to use pronouns.

Now this guy is saying that NOT allowing bullying is "bullying people for free speech"

They just called for cloture to end all debate.

Cloture motion fails.

It failed by 1 vote, so they will continue to talk.

Republicans don't even want people to SPEAK about this bill.

"If I choose as a teacher to call a student only by their legal name instead of an opposite gender name, should I be punished? No."

Yes.

Yes, mistreating trans students should get you in trouble.

"In order for students to learn, first they have to feel safe. Students need to learn to treat each other with respect no matter what their beliefs are."

"An inadvertent comment or wrong name is not what we're talking about here. This bill amounts to state sanctioned bullying of our students. It encourages that bullying. There's a specific carveout, nowhere else in Montana do we see that."

"I'm going to challenge my colleague across the aisle. Jesus walked in compassion, respect, and love."

Cloture called.

Debate is over.

This guy:

"It is bullying to force my kids to say something that isn't true"

basically, "LGBTQ+ people are the real bullies."

Right to bully trans people passes in Montana's house.

66-34.

That will be all for the day.

I'll likely be writing this or Arkansas' bathroom ban up later today.

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