Thread by @ErinInTheMorn

The Montana House of Reps is convening where Republican lawmakers are considering censuring their only trans representative, Rep. Zooey Zephyr, for a powerful speech against anti-trans laws.

They will hear a law meant to erase trans people from all code.

Watch with me now. 🧵

I am a transgender journalist covering all of the laws and this anti-trans movement as it sweeps the country. Please subscribe to support my work. It is how I can continue to report on all of this. I can only do it with people like you.

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You can watch along with me live here:

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

Stories around the United States have covered the attacks on @ZoAndBehold , and they threaten to come to a crest here today.

businessinsider.com/montana-lawmak…

Here is her video, the fiery speech that led to them calling for her censure:

Here is Rep. Zephyr's letter in response:

Rep Zephyr takes her seat.

They will hear legislation, which includes legislation to define trans people entirely out of code.

Rep. Zephyr told them, "I hope the next time you bow your head in prayer, I hope you see the blood on your hands."

Their laws harm so many trans people.

They are praying now.

"We desire to be like the apostle Paul"

Even the Christian god recognized Paul's new name.

We are waiting for HB458, the bill that will ban trans people from identification documents that match theri gender, ban people from bathrooms in some circumstances, ban ALL legal recognition of their gender.

We are moving to third reading. they will hear several bills and these bills will move QUICKLY. Then we will get to 2nd reading which is when I'm expecting debate over the trans bill.

What happens there is anyone's guess.

We are moving to 2nd reading.

Get ready.

HB458 is next. This will be the bill that will erase trans people from 41 areas of Montana law.

Ironic that they are considering censuring and erasing their one trans woman colleague while hearing such a bill.

They are currently debating marijuana law.

"We have to high tax the pot and break our drug addiction"

The bill sponsor is closing on his bill.

We will be moving to 458, a terrible bill that defines transgender people entirely out of code.

I will be mobile for this portion for 10-15 minutes but will still be updating, I just may not get screenshots.

We move to Senate Bill 458.

This is one of the worst anti-trans laws moving in the United States.

The sponsor, Rep. Regier, is speaking and says the bill is simple.

It is not. It changes with a broad brush 41 sections of code with dramatic unintended consequences, such as it potentially legalizes the sexual abuse of kids if they are intersex.

See this portion right here:

Rep Howell, non-binary rep, is speaking passionately about the bill.

Talking about the narrow definition of sex that could lead to perpetrators not being held to account.

“I don’t usually like to get personal but the truth is I’m a private person. Imagine my dismay at finding in this bill that it requires me to be defined by the state, not by my bad jokes or excellent hair but by my gamete’s”

“People look at me sometimes and they don’t see a Montanan, but I’m here. This is my home. And I look at my state and see, this state is big enough for me.”

They are closing on the bill.

Sb458 is concurred.

Minority Leader Abbott stands and says Rep Zephyr has not been recognized.

They refused to let Zooey stand.

The speaker is refusing to recognize rep Zephyr.

They have not formally censured her but they literally just passed a bill erasing trans people while not allowing her to speak.

The minority leader is calling for a rules interpretation.

The entire Democratic Party has stood to demand Rep Zephyr be recognized.

They are convening a rules committee.

The Republican Party of Montana just refused to recognize their first transgender member of the body while they voted to define transgender people entirely out of the code of Montana, including drivers licenses, birth certificates, and more.

The entire Democratic Party stood.

We now move to House Rules, where a committee of the Rules will determine Rep. Zephyr's fate and if she will be allowed to speak.

The room is PACKED.

Watch here

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

Zooey sits in the top left.

The entire Montana house just voted to remove trans people from all Montana laws.

The same hearing, they refused to recognize the one trans woman and allow her to speak.

They will rule on if she is allowed to speak.

Rep Abbott is stating that a formal censure has not occurred, and so Rep. Zephyr should be addressed and allowed to speak.

"If a speaker violates the rules of the house, the speaker SHALL call the member to order. The speaker suggested the member who wasn't recognized had violated decorum. However, I submit as a body that the chair did not call the member to order. That's a specific process."

"They did not do that. That says to me there is no violation of rules."

"Arbitrary lack of recognition could be applied to every one of us at the table if this goes through. There is nothing in parliamentary procedure, nothing in Masons, that supports the arbitrary application to not recognize a member."

"The absence of his recognition should have been remedied by the member standing to contest lack of recognition rather than appealing to 20-80"

They are trying to state that they can just ignore her.

They are claiming that because they did not dispute it by standing when Zephyr punched in and they failed to recognize, they have all the right in the world to not recognize her.

"What they are saying was impossible to do, because the speaker wasn't recognizing her."

"The only person the speaker is required to recognize is the minority leader and that's the process we continued with."

they are going deep into Mason's rules right now.

This is where we are at.

They have a room of old, cis people voting to erase trans people from law while debating whether a sitting elected official even has a right to speak on the bill.

Minority leader is objecting on if they will be able to hear from people off of the committee.

The leader of the committee is ruling that people cannot give testimony on this motion.

It goes to role call vote.

The committee votes to not allow any further testimony from outside witnesses on this rule order.

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"In order to not find ourselves back here again in 10 minutes, in the description from the speaker, we heard what I think represents a plan to not continue to recognize a member of our caucus."

This is true. She can punch in again and they'll be right back here.

The speaker says rules don't apply on the house floor.

But Montana uses a "committee of the whole"

Now, Rep Stewart Peregoy is calling for an interpretation that this is in violation of rules in the house on harassment and discrimination.

"I am a woman of color. When we talk about censorship, we are not allowing an individual to speak on behalf of their conscience."

"As an American Indian, we have had to continually reeducate people on where we come from as a people. We are on a slippery slope. The slippery slope is fascism."

WOW.

She calls it fascism!

"Discrimination has happened in this session. Whether people see it or are blind to it, it is something that has happened. We have had members told to not speak. Bills in debate certain inuendo has been brought through. We are on that slippery slope to discrimination."

"Our freedom only goes as far as impacting someone else's freedom. It's not our way or the highway. Everyone has equal access to this floor."

They tried to stop her from speaking too!

They're shutting out the speech of all minorities in Montana and making nebulous rules orders without formally censuring Rep Zephyr, giving her no recourse.

Minority leader Abbott: "I want an interpretation based on 2080. He ruled the relevant rule was 2020. It wasn't about who objected or when."

"We are coming in direct conflict with our own rules. Rule 3050-215 clearly says committee members have the right to participate freely in committee discussions and debate. Masons backs this up. Debate is the feature of a legislative body. Members have the right to persuade"

"There are times where there are things that can be done, and should be done. There are times when can be done and should be differ dramatically. Vote no to not uphold the speaker on this."

Rep Durham: "The issue at hand is violation of decorum. I wore a hard hat, and having said that, my majority leader spoke to me, I acknowledged the incident, and was polite and curtious and haven't wore the hard hat"

What do they want Rep Zephyr to do, not be trans anymore?

Rep Durham is supporting the motion to not recognize Rep Zephyr.

Republicans appear to be ready to silence Rep. Zephyr without formally censuring her in a wild, unprecedented policy.

This essentially allows them to refuse people to speak.

Rep Fielder calls a question on the motion.

The speaker is requesting the motion be withdrawn.

The motion to call the question is withdrawn.

Look at this picture. A room full of people not allowing a trans elected official to speak, without formally censuring her.

"To do this on a day like today, on a bill like the one that we just heard, to do that to a member who was not allowed to speak on something that impacts her community is something I want to note."

"The speaker SHALL call the member to order. The speaker did not follow the rules we set forward for him. This is a compounding issue."

"What triggered this? If this was the issue, it should have been gaveled down yesterday, not today."

"I don't want to come back here 20 minutes from now. This action is being taken by the speaker because he said they violated decorum, and until that changes, his decision will remain the same. I looked everywhere in the rulebook."

"If we are not clear about this, we will end up back here."

They are now about to try to hold the Indian American representative in violation of decorum.

They are allowing Representative Abbott to close on the motion.

"The incident was 2 days ago. Did we settle the rules, did we follow it when it happened? What does the lack of clarity on this issue mean going forward as a body."

They are likely about to vote to keep Rep Zephyr from being recognized.

They may be back here in 10 minutes.

They have voted to allow the speaker to not recognize Rep. Zephyr, while not formally censuring her.

This will likely lead to them having to come right back into this room shortly.

They just upheld the motion to silence Representative Zephyr without a censure.

We will see what happens next. This is not over.

We return to the House feed.

Watch with me.

They have, for now, decided to not allow Rep Zephyr, the trans woman rep, to speak.

Here is the feed they have moved to:

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

The arbitrary ruling that was just made in Montana is that the speaker can simply refuse to let anyone speak, for any reason.

As an aside... the Montana legislature music is RPG world map music... and its really off-putting given what's going on right now.

We have returned to order.

Minority leader Abbott objects to the ruling.

It goes to the full board.

The body votes 63-31 to uphold the ruling.

They are moving to the next bill. Keep watching as this may not be over.

They are on an economic development bill.

They will have several people speak to the bill.

There are more anti-trans bills coming too. I'll note them when they arrive. Stick with this feed.

Rep Zephyr appears on the camera as they zoom in on the rep speaking next to her.

Rep Zephyr is standing and not being recognized.

Other members stand with her.

They are going to push.

They vote not to recognize her.

She stays standing.

Note: Rep Zephyr has not been censured.

This is an entirely unprecedented action to not recognize a representative while being too cowardly to bring a censure motion to a vote.

Montana has just voted to erase trans people from ALL laws relating to gender in the state.

And then following that, they proceed to not allow their trans woman representative to speak on any bill.

This is fascism, I'm not holding my words here.

Rep Marler stands.

"I come here every day and hear things deeply offensive. I keep coming back. We are all elected here to vote for our constituents to speak on behalf. This body is denying the representative in seat 31 the chance to do her job."

"Please, let this go. Let the representative in seat 31 do her job and do what we were all elected to do."

They have adjourned without allowing her to speak.

This is not the end of this.

@ZoAndBehold will continue to fight for her voice to be recognized, and I will continue to report on developments.

@ZoAndBehold Don't forget to subscribe to support my work, as I am a journalist covering the anti-lgbtq+ laws sweeping the United States right now, and what just happened in Montana was one of the worst things I have witnessed in my 3 years of coverage.

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