An attempt to bar Montana transgender state Rep. Zooey Zephyr from using the women’s bathroom at the State Capitol in Helena failed a vote in the House Rules Committee.
Several Republicans were among the lawmakers who voted against the measure Tuesday. The measure was introduced by Republican Rep. Jerry Schillinger and would have required legislators to use the bathrooms matching their gender at birth. Zephyr is Montana’s first transgender lawmaker.
Schillinger said Tuesday that 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,” according to NBC News.
He made the comments at a meeting of the Joint House and Senate Rules Committee before the state’s upcoming legislative session next month.
The measure required both the House and Senate Committees to vote for it for it to pass. The Senate voted 11-7 in favor; the House panel voted 10-12 against.
Zephyr garnered national attention last year when she was censured and barred from the House floor after a harsh attack on a ban on gender-afirming care for transgender youth.“If you vote yes on this bill, I hope the next time you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,” she said before she was censured.
This time, she took to social media on Tuesday to thank colleagues who voted against the bathroom-blocking bill.
“I’m happy to see that this proposed ban failed and am grateful for my colleagues — particularly my Republican colleagues —who recognized this as a distraction from the work we were elected to do,” she wrote on X. “I’m ready to represent my constituents, and look forward to working on behalf of the people of Montana.”
Republican state Rep. David Bedey was one of four Republicans who voted against the measure.
“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,” he said before the vote on Tuesday, adding that bathroom access wasn’t a problem for the women lawmakers he spoke with during the past legislative session.
Fellow Republican state Rep. Brad Barker said the matter was turning into a “distraction.”
Another Republican, Rep. Jedediah Hinkle, backed the measure, noting that the legislature could have more trans lawmakers in the future.
“I think it’s time this body addresses this issue now as they are addressing it nationally,” he said. “We need to set that precedent right now that women have their spaces and they need to be comfortable in those spaces, and I think we ought to stand up for them.”
Hinkle may have been speaking about the election to the U.S. House of Sarah McBride of Delaware, set to become the first openly trans member of Congress when she is sworn in in January.
South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace put forward legislation to stop any legislators or House staffers from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.”
Misgendering McBride, Mace told the press that the incoming Delaware lawmaker was the target of her proposal. Mace vowed she’s “absolutely 100 percent going to stand in the way of any man who wants to be in a women’s restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms.”
Mace received the backing of House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families. Like all members, I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them,” McBride said on X last month.
“This effort to distract from the real issues facing this country hasn’t distracted me over the last several days, as I’ve remained hard at work preparing to represent the greatest state in the union come January,” she added.
“The attacks we see on trans people will escalate. This will not be the last attack on Congresswoman McBride,” Zephyr told Scripps News last month.
She added: “In my perspective, it is important that we make sure as trans people in this country that we do not cede ground to someone who wants to erase us — regardless of whether they want to erase us in the Capitol, or if they want to erase us as we go through our daily lives in public. We have to stand strong.”
