Montana lawmakers cross the aisle to block a trans bathroom ban in the state capitol

Lawmakers in Montana crossed party lines this week to reject a measure that would have banned a transgender representative from using the women’s bathroom at the state Capitol.

Several Republicans joined all Democrats in voting against the proposal at a meeting of the Joint House and Senate Rules Committees on Tuesday.

The proposed rule would have designated two bathrooms — located between the House and Senate chambers — as male and female and required legislators to use the one that aligned with their sex chromosomes at birth.

“It says what probably shouldn’t need to be said and puts in the rules what probably shouldn’t need to be put in the rules … that the gals’ restroom will be used only by gals and the guys’ restroom will be used only by [guys],” Republican Rep. Jerry Schillinger, who proposed the measure, said at Tuesday’s meeting.

The lawmakers did not name names but implied that the rule was aimed at Democratic Rep. Zooey Zephyr, who was elected the state’s first transgender legislator in 2022 and won a second term last month.

This wouldn’t be Montana Republicans’ first time singling out Zephyr: They voted in April 2023 to sanction and silence her from floor debates for breaking decorum, after she said lawmakers who supported a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for minors would have “blood on your hands.” (While her banishment ended with the 2023 session, she has yet to return since the legislature did not meet in 2024.)

“Understand that we have one representative right now but in the future, we could have many,” Republican Rep. Jedediah Hinkle, a supporter of the measure, said on Tuesday. “This could be an ongoing thing.”

During the nearly 15-minute discussion — in which no women participated — lawmakers in favor of the rule said it would safeguard women’s spaces, while those opposed questioned its utility and how it would be enforced.

Critics also maintained that the accommodations made during the legislature’s last session — adding locks to the nearby bathrooms’ outer doors — had already addressed members’ concerns. And two Republican members worried that the measure itself would be a distraction.

“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,” said Republican Rep. David Bedey, who opposed the bill “reluctantly” despite his personal views on the topic.

The proposal, which needed support from a majority of both committees, passed in the Senate committee but ultimately failed in the House committee by a vote of 10-12. Zephyr celebrated the outcome on social media.

“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 posted on X. “I’m ready to represent my constituents & look forward to working on behalf of Montana.”

A similar conversation has been playing out in Congress

On Tuesday, Hinkle — one of the Montana rule’s Republican supporters — acknowledged that the issue has been in the national spotlight.

“I think it’s time that this body addresses this issue now as they are addressing it nationally,” he said.

The Montana measure came right after a similar conversion arose in the nation’s Capital — but ended in a very different outcome.

In early November, Democratic Rep.-elect Sarah McBride of Delaware became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.

Weeks later, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a measure that would ban transgender women from using facilities in the Capitol building that do not correspond with their sex at birth. Mace later followed up with legislation that would extend to all facilities on federal property.

House Speaker Mike Johnson hasn’t commented on a plan to vote on those measures, but released a clarification saying all single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings are “reserved for individuals of that biological sex.”

McBride — like many of her soon-to-be Democratic colleagues — criticized the ordeal as a distraction, but said she will comply with the rules Johnson outlined.

“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms,” tweeted McBride, who will take office in January. “I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families.”