Not even three weeks after the Tennessee House of Representatives was criticized nationally for attempting to expel three representatives and succeeding with two, at 9:47pm on April 25th, Montana representative Zooey Zephyr received a notice that the following day there would be a motion filed to either censure or expel her.
Like the Tennessee three, Representative Zephyr is being reprimanded for doing her job. Since the previous week, she has been attempting to speak against an anti trans bill that has been on the floor. However, after being promised a chance to speak on it, she has been denied the right to do so. Since Zephyr has started tweeting about her experience being rendered unable to do her job, people in Montana have been protesting outside the Capitol demanding that she be allowed to speak. This echoes the sentiments in Tennessee calling out the blatant abuse of power by the House Republicans.
Furthermore, House Republicans further showcased their bias against the representative by misgendering her in a tweet the previous week saying “Our Caucus is calling for the immediate censure of transgender Rep. Zooey Zephyr after his threatening and deeply concerning comments on the House floor earlier today.”
They doubled down on their statement by stating that “standing in the middle of the floor encouraged an insurrection after all members were told to move to the sides and clear the House gallery to remain in a safe location.”
Tennessee was only the beginning of the move towards a blatantly fascist way of doing things and it is only going to get worse.
