Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr asked a court Monday to allow for her return to the House floor after she was silenced and barred for chiding her Republican colleagues over legislation to restrict gender-affirming health care and for encouraging protesters.
Attorneys for the first-term lawmaker sued in state district court in Helena on behalf of Zephyr and several constituents who the attorneys said were being denied their right to adequate representation. Zephyr is a transgender Democrat who represents a liberal district in the college town of Missoula.
Zephyr, whose comments in the Montana Legislature have made her a prominent figure in transgender rights, said that she and her constituents were targeted because she dared to give voice to the values and needs of transgender people like herself.
The legal challenge against House Speaker Matt Regier and Sergeant-at-Arms Brad Murfitt comes with just days left in the Legislature’s biennial session.
A spokesperson for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen — a Republican whose office will defend the case — said the lawsuit was frivolous.
In declarations filed as part of the lawsuit, residents of the Missoula area said they wanted Zephyr heard in the Legislature.
Zephyr’s attorneys hoped to get a ruling as quickly as possible on their request for a temporary restraining order against Regier and Murfitt. #queer_up_politics