Measure to ban trans Montana lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from women's bathroom fails
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/measure-to-ban-trans-montana-lawmaker-zooey-zephyr-from-women-s-bathroom-fails/ar-AA1vdEIo?ocid=windirect&cvid=448f8b51d0484bd392e0e06c5a6dc748&ei=26
Story by Jo Yurcaba (3 Dec 2024)
A measure to bar Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the state's first transgender legislator, from using the women's restroom at the state capitol failed to pass the House rules committee Tuesday, with several Republicans voting against it.
The proposed measure, introduced by Republican state Rep. Jerry Schillinger, would've required state legislators to use the restrooms of their birth sex.
The measure "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 during a meeting of the Montana Joint House and Senate Rules Committees Tuesday ahead of Montana's next legislative session in January.
The proposal, which needed support from a majority of both committees to pass, failed, with the Senate committee voting 11-7 in favor and the House committee voting 10-12 against.
Zephyr — who drew international attention and became a nationally recognized face among the LGBTQ community last year when she was censured in the Montana legislature — thanked her colleagues who voted against the measure in a statement on social media.