(Los Angeles) Republicans in Montana on Wednesday banned an elected transgender Democrat from sitting in the parliament of this northern United States state, because of her vehement opposition to a law that makes transitional care inaccessible to minors.
Already banned from speaking for almost a week, Zooey Zephyr is now suspended until the end of the parliamentary session, according to a disciplinary measure approved by the Republican majority.
Montana’s only transgender parliamentarian will simply be able to vote remotely. Local Republicans accuse him of remarks deemed not to respect protocol.
Last 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.
Mme Zephyr denounced his exclusion on Wednesday as an attack on democracy and an affront to the LGBT+ community.
“When I stood up to say there is blood on your hands, I was not hyperbole,” she insisted in a speech before the vote, saying that many transgender people commit suicide because of laws aimed at them.
She once again refused to apologize, which the Republican speaker of the local parliament demands to reinstate her.
“If you use decorum to silence people who hold you accountable, you are only using decorum as a tool of oppression,” she argued.
Cultural battle
The conflict, which sparked a demonstration in which seven people were arrested on Monday, is the latest example of the cultural battle between the two major American parties over the delicate issue of transgender people.
It comes just weeks after the controversial exclusion of two elected African-American Democrats from the Tennessee legislature in early April for demonstrating against gun violence. An episode which had pushed President Joe Biden to step up to obtain their reinstatement.
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 powerful civil rights association ACLU, published last week by the washington post.
The association reacted on Wednesday to the suspension of Mme Zephyr, denouncing a decision that is “authoritarianism”.
More than 56% of transgender youth have had suicidal thoughts in their lifetime and 31% have made at least one suicide attempt, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Available studies on the subject show that these young people feel better when they have access to puberty blockers or hormonal treatments.
But many Republicans denounce the irreversible effects of some of these treatments and want to ban them.