Montana lawmakers on both sides of the aisle voted Wednesday to block a ban that would've prevented Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the state's first openly transgender legislator, from using women's restrooms at the state Capitol. CNN reports that multiple Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against the measure on Tuesday. The bill proposed by GOP Rep. Jerry Schillinger would've barred lawmakers from using Capitol restrooms that don't sync with their biological sex at birth .
The motion "says what probably shouldn't need to be said and puts into rules what probably shouldn't need to be put into rules," Schillinger said Tuesday. Lawmakers who supported the ban in the 15-minute discussion ahead of the vote—in which no women took part, notes NPR—said that the prohibition would keep bathrooms safe for women, but critics wondered how useful the bill would actually prove. "This particular action will have the effect of making people famous in the national news and will not contribute to the effective conduct of our business," GOP Rep. David Bedey said of the proposal, though he added he voted against the ban "reluctantly" due to his own personal views on the matter.
It's not the first time Zephyr's colleagues have gone after her. She was banned last year from the state House chamber after accusing Montana Republicans who wanted a ban on gender-affirming health care for minors of having "blood" on their hands. The attempt to keep her out of women's public bathrooms at the Capitol echoes that of GOP Rep. Nancy Mace in the US House of Representatives, who introduced a bathroom ban bill last month targeting freshman Rep. Sarah McBride, a transgender lawmaker. Soon after, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a change in policy at the US Capitol that would dictate all single-sex facilities be "reserved for individuals of that biological sex."
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Zephyr, who was first elected in 2022 and was reelected last month, appeared pleased after the Montana vote. "I'm happy to see that this proposed ban failed and am grateful for my colleagues—particularly my [R]epublican colleagues—who recognized this as a distraction from the work we were elected to do," she wrote Tuesday on X. "I'm ready to represent my constituents & look forward to working on behalf of Montana." (More Zooey Zephyr stories.)
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