The election of Joe Biden, in November 2020, first appeared as a hope for transgender people in the United States. After a series of attacks on LGBT+ people led by the Trump administration, President Joe Biden authorized transgender people to serve in the US military five days after taking office.
The Republican Party, however, has not given up its war against this community. Latest target: Zooey Zephyr. Aged 34, she is the first openly transgender person elected to the House of Representatives of Montana, a state in the northwestern United States.
The one who calls herself an activist for the trans cause since 2020 decided to take the plunge and enter politics the following year. “In 2021, seeing how the right was attacking gay people, I went to testify before the House of Representatives [du Montana]she explains. I met the governor’s team [le républicain Greg Gianforte] to lobby for the rights of transgender people in the state. » She says she felt like she was hitting a wall. “They didn’t want to hear anything”, she summarizes. And for good reason: in May 2021, in less than a week, the Montana State Chamber of Deputies narrowly adopted three bills restricting LGBT+ rights.
On Twitter, she declares that she could have prevented this vote if she had been elected. She is therefore running for the Democratic Party, in the 2022 midterm elections, in a progressive constituency. Based in Missoula, a Democratic city of 75,000 inhabitants, she was elected in November to the Montana House of Representatives, and has sat since January alongside SJ Howellthe first non-binary person (who does not identify as either male or female) elected in Montana.
“I hope you see the blood on your hands”
There she scraps against the Senate Bill 99, entitled Youth Health Protection Act, which aims to make gender transitional care inaccessible to transgender minors. She puts so much ardor into it that the Republican majority in the House decides to censor her, accusing her of remarks deemed inappropriate.
On several occasions, during the debates, she criticizes the will of the republicans to pass a law prohibiting the delivery of hormonal treatments to transgender minors to ensure their transition. ” The next time (…) as you bow your head in prayer, I hope you see the blood on your hands”she told them on April 18, saying that this kind of law pushes transgender people to commit suicide, with supporting studies.
“If you are denying gender-affirming care and forcing a trans child to go through puberty, that is tantamount to to… https://t.co/NddCNpTU7G
In retaliation, a group of twenty one republicans sign a letter requesting “censorship” of the chosen one. In it, they refer to it using a masculine pronoun, ostensibly misrepresenting it. In a statement, she explains that the 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” of the Republicans, intended to guarantee “silence as they take away the rights of transgender and gay Montana residents.”
Matt Regier, Republican Speaker of the House, elude and recall that the rules of the institution allow the floor to be withdrawn from an elected official who does not respect the protocol. “All elected members of the House can debate provided they follow the rules. The choice not to follow these rules is the choice made by the chosen Zephyr. The only person who censors Chosen Zephyr is Chosen Zephyr. The Montana Chamber won’t take a beating. » It requires that she apologize for reinstating herwhich she refuses.
“Silence Us”
Seven people who demonstrated in his favor were arrested on April 25. In a statement, the elected official still denounces her exclusionseeing it as an attack on democracy and an affront to the LGBT+ community: “When I stood up to say there’s blood on your hands, I wasn’t hyperboling. » She asked the justice to reinstate her to allow her to participate at the end of the parliamentary session which ends on May 5. In five-page decisiona Montana judge recalls that the decision is not his responsibility: to grant Zooey Zephyr’s request “would compel this court to interfere with the legislature [ce] which exceeds the authority of [la] court “.
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Since then, the elected official has continued to follow the work of the Chamber from outside the hemicycle and to communicate with these fellow Democrats. The wives of elected Republicans then occupied the bench on which she was sitting in an attempt to prevent her from following the proceedings.
Finally, on Tuesday, theelected was the target of an attemptand of “swatting” – a phenomenon consisting of calling the emergency number in the United States and pretending that a serious situation is at a specific address so that a special unit intervention group is sent there –, just like Erin Reed, his girlfrienda transgender journalist residing in Maryland. “Those who hate transgender people do everything in their power to silence and harm us. But we won’t be deterred.”wrote the chosen one on Twitter about the incident.
Suicidal thoughts
This standoff is the latest example of the cultural battle between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of transgender people. Since January, twenty-nine new laws restricting the rights of transgender people have been passed in fourteen US states, according to an analysis of data from the civil rights association ACLU, published in late April by the washington post. The association reacted on 1er May, to the suspension of Zooey Zephyr, in denouncing a decision which falls under the“authoritarianism”.
Over 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. The studies available on the subject show that when they have access to puberty blockers or hormonal treatments before coming of age, these young people have better mental health, suffer fewer suicidal thoughts, major mental disorders and have fewer substance abuse problems. But many Republicans denounce the irreversible effects of some of these treatments and want to ban them.