(Los Angeles) An elected transgender Democrat from Montana is no longer authorized to speak in the parliament of this northern state of the United States, after being censured by the Republican majority for her opposition to a law banning treatments to change of sex to minors.
This controversy is one of the last episodes of the violent cultural battle between the two major American parties.
In early April, the exclusion of two elected African-American Democrats from the Tennessee parliament, for having demonstrated against gun violence, had prompted President Joe Biden to step up to obtain their reinstatement.
Since Thursday, Zooey Zephyr, the only transgender parliamentarian in Montana, no longer has the right to intervene in the local parliament. The conservative majority in the House criticizes him for remarks deemed inappropriate.
Earlier in the week, M.me Zephyr felt that his colleagues should be “shamed” of passing a law prohibiting the delivery of hormonal treatments to transgender minors to ensure their transition.
” The next time […] that you will bow your head to pray, I hope you will see the blood on your hands”, had launched the elected official at the address of the Republicans who adopted this text. She believes that such laws push transgender people to commit suicide.
In a press release published on Thursday evening, she explained that Parliament “refuses to [l]’allow to [s]’express on any bill until the end of the legislative session’, unless she apologizes.
The elected official denounces a “fundamentally undemocratic decision” by these Republicans, intended to guarantee “silence as they suppress the rights of transgender and homosexual residents of Montana. »
As of Tuesday, a group of 21 Republicans had signed a letter demanding the “censorship” of Mme Zephyr. In it, they refer to her using a masculine pronoun.
“I don’t censor anyone,” the conservative speaker of the local parliament, Matt Regier, assured Friday in an interview with MTN News. According to him, the rules of the House allow to withdraw the floor from an elected official who does not respect the protocol.
“Any Representative who wishes to debate with respect for the decorum, integrity and dignity of the House […] will be recognized” as legitimate to express themselves, he added.
Since January, 29 new laws restricting the rights of transgender people have been passed in 14 US states, according to an analysis of data from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published this week by The Washington Post.