Watch Transgender Reps Give Powerful Floor Speeches Against Anti-Trans Legislation In Virginia And Montana

This week, Representative Zooey Zephyr of Montana and Delegate Danica Roem of Virginia gave extremely strong floor speeches against anti-trans bills. This is why representation matters.

Representation matters. That is especially true when it comes to transgender representation in the halls of power. This week, several anti-transgender bills are moving across the country. Some of these bills have been proposed where we have transgender representatives in place. In Montana, HB303 would allow for doctors, nurses, EMTs, and even secretaries at medical institutions to refuse care to LGBTQ+ people. In Virginia, several anti-trans bills are progressing, including HB1387, a bill that would ban transgender people from sports and force medical examinations to determine “biological sex.” Both of these states have transgender legislators: Representative Zooey Zephyr in Montana and Delegate Danica Roem in Virginia.

As bills move through committees and onto legislative floors, these representatives and all of the other trans representatives across the country are increasingly finding themselves with a platform to represent not just their constituency but their community. In a year where more anti-trans legislation has been proposed than ever in history, it is important that we center these delegates and let them put into the public record the pain that these bills cause the trans community. Their voices will be essential in fighting back against the worst proposals. Fortunately, it would seem that our transgender representatives are extremely articulate and competent. Watch their two speeches:

Rep. Zooey Zephyr And House Bill 303 In Montana

House bill 303 in Montana is a horrendous bill for LGBTQ+ people as well as many other minority groups, and Representative Zooey Zephyr delivered a strong rebuke on the House floor. She pointed out that this bill gives anyone who works in healthcare the right to refuse treatment to LGBTQ+ people and anyone else they may object to based on “conscience.” If it passes, the bill will be weaponized against gender affirming care, abortion, dispensing birth control, and more. Proposals like this target vulnerable populations and place the rights of the provider above the rights of the patient to not experience discrimination in healthcare settings when they are most at risk.

HB303 has historical context that people should be aware of. It has echoes of the death of Tyra Hunter, a trans woman in a car accident that was left for dead when EMTs discovered her genital configuration. Transgender people are at extremely high risk of medical discrimination even without this bill in place. Two in three transgender people have experienced discrimination in healthcare according to the Center for American Progress’ 2021 survey. Bills like this make those experiences even more likely.

Republican proponents of the bill tried to argue that the bill is procedure based and not person based, but Representative Zephyr called out how this is not the case. In the “health care service” section of the bill, it includes everything from dispensing a drug, therapy, record-making, testing, initial exams, and even “any other service performed or provided by a medical practitioner.” It also states that the people refusing treatment “may not be held liable for damages allegedly arising from the exercise of conscience.” This bill has absolutely no guardrails for patients and allows free discrimination.

Proponents of the bill have also stated that emergency services are not affected but even that is not correct. The bill does have a carveout for emergency services, but only at the medical institution or payer level. The separate section at the provider level has no such carveout.

Representative Zephyr spoke passionately about this bill and why it is so terrible for the trans community, “What is actually going to happen is, it’s going to be a denial based on diagnosis. Something like ‘I am diagnosed with gender dysphoria,’ and the thing is, that is inherently discriminatory, because you cannot parse my diagnosis from who I am. To deny me based on my diagnosis of gender dysphoria is to deny me based on being a trans woman. This is in direct conflict with federal Supreme Court statute in Bostock vs. Clayton County, and it is also in direct conflict with state Supreme Court law with Maloney vs. Yellowstone County.”

The bill unfortunately passed the House 65-35, it now goes to the Senate:

Erin Reed @ErinInTheMorn

And HB303 passes 65-35. Terrible.

Danica Roem and HB1387 in Virginia

House Bill 1387 in Virginia targets transgender people in sports. Delegate Danica Roem opposed the bill, saying it would impact public K-12 schools, state colleges, and state universities. She argued that it would prevent transgender individuals from participating in sports according to their gender identity, and would force state teams to forfeit if they compete against teams that follow NCAA regulations which allow for trans participation. Roem also pointed out the bill would require invasive medical exams for athletes. Concluding, she criticized the bill for not promoting women's sports and accused its proponents of not caring about women's sports by targeting transgender people instead of pay inequity and funding.

Delegate Roem chastised the proponents of the bill, “How do we support women athletes? How about we show up to their games. How about we pay them equally.”

She continued, “How many times have any of you here gone to a girls basketball game followed by a boys basketball game, where the girls game starts at 5:00 or 5:30 and the boys game starts at 7:00 or 7:30 and you saw the gym get packed right at the very end of the 4th quarter of the girls game because so many people were excited about the boys game, regardless of how competitive, of the skills, of the rankings of the girls team, often when they were playing the exact same school?”

Bills like this use the transgender community as a cudgel without addressing real issues in women’s sports that arise due to lack of support. Delegate Roem pointed out that there are only 9 transgender athletes in Virginia that play in competitive sports, and this policy would target 1.2 million students in the state with invasive new requirements over such a tiny population. This bill would sabotage women’s sports by forcing colleges to forfeit their matches. It does nothing to improve the gaps between male and female sports and would only increase discrimination.

The bill is expected to come up for a final vote soon.