Montana Capitol allows transgender representatives to use women’s washrooms

Montana lawmakers voted Tuesday against a proposal to ban a transgender state representative from using the women’s restroom at the Capitol, with both parties opposing the measure.

Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender woman first elected to the Statehouse in 2022, praised her colleagues who voted against the proposed ban on a legislative committee.

“I am pleased that this proposed ban has failed and am grateful to my colleagues – especially my Republican colleagues – who recognized this as a distraction from the work we were elected to do,” Zephyr said on X.

The failed Montana measure came as part of a similar attempt by Republicans at the U.S. Capitol, on a bill that would ban Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, a transgender woman from Delaware, from the women’s restrooms at the Capitol. The bill has yet to be voted on, but Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement that restrooms would be reserved for “persons of that biological sex.”

Republican Rep. Jerry Schillinger’s Montana proposal would have reserved two legislative restrooms exclusively for male and female users, respectively, defining them based on their chromosomes and their reproductive and hormonal systems.

Four Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against the measure during a Joint Rules Committee meeting, the Flathead Beacon reported in Helena, the capital.

Montana Republicans voted to ban Zephyr from debates in 2023 for violating decorum after she said lawmakers who supported a ban on gender-affirming health care for minors had “blood on their hands.”

(With inputs from Reuters)