Trans, nonbinary lawmakers call out retaliation and smears
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A rally for trans rights in Saint Paul, Minnesota in March 2022. Photo: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Multiple trans or nonbinary state lawmakers have been targeted or censured in recent weeks over issues they say are connected to their identity.
Why it matters: While disparate cases, Democrats in state legislatures have faced punishment from colleagues or outside backlash as Republicans introduce a wave of anti-trans bills across the country.
Driving the news: Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D), the state's only transgender lawmaker, was punished by the GOP-led House this week after speaking out against lawmakers who support a bill banning gender-affirming care.
- Zephyr has been barred from the state House floor and gallery for the rest of the 90-day legislative session, though she can join remotely.
- In Minnesota, state Rep. Leigh Finke said Wednesday that she has faced death threats and harassment after Fox News incorrectly represented a bill she had introduced to the House.
- "There was never a controversy, but it didn’t matter. The lie exploded into a whirlwind of hate intended to hurt me," she added.
- In Nebraska, state Sen. Megan Hunt is under investigation for a potential conflict of interest because she voted against a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors and has a trans child.
- Last month, Oklahoma state Rep. Mauree Turner, the first openly nonbinary lawmaker in the U.S., was censured for impeding law enforcement officers from questioning a protester who had taken refuge in their office.
Of note: Experts warned after Tennessee's GOP expelled two Black GOP state Democratic lawmakers over a gun reform protest earlier this month that such partisan expulsions over divergent political positions are becoming increasingly common.
The present moment has no precise parallel since openly trans people have only been being elected to state legislatures for slightly more than a decade, per Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, told Axios.
- Supporters of social change "have rarely been inside the legislative chambers," Paulson added.
- He noted an exception would be newly elected Black legislators being targeted in Southern states during the late Reconstruction period around the late 1870s.
Rotimi Adeoye, a spokesperson for the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, invoked a comparison to the the Original 33, the first Black lawmakers to be elected to the Georgia state legislature after the civil war, who were subsequently expelled.
- While that case is different from those in Montana and Tennessee, the similarity lies in that "these are politicians that are being expelled or removed from Congress for simply speaking against the status quo, and using their voice to speak out for good," Adeoye told Axios.
State of play: GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis issued a statement Wednesday condemning Zephyr's censure in Montana, calling it an "assault on democracy."
- The episode is "the latest in a disturbing trend across the country as LGBTQ and ally lawmakers in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and other states have also faced recent threats of censure simply for speaking up for their constituents," she added.
By the numbers: More than 500 pieces of anti-LGBTQ legislation have been introduced in state legislatures across the U.S. so far in 2023, GLAAD and the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute said in a joint press release Wednesday.
- These bills run the gamut of seeking to ban healthcare for trans people, keeping trans youths out of school sports, banning LGBTQ people or issues from being mentioned in school curriculums, cracking down on drag performances, and more.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.
