friend—We will not be silenced.

Last week the Montana state legislature censured transgender Representative Zooey Zephyr, barring her from speaking on the House floor after she defended the right to gender-affirming care.

Yesterday, they voted to formally punish her for the rest of the legislative session, after hundreds of protesters showed up at the capitol to defend her.

Why all the bigotry? Because when speaking on a House bill to ban gender-affirming care for minors, Rep. Zephyr said Republican lawmakers have “blood on their hands.”

She’s right—trans and nonbinary youth see a 73% lower suicide risk when given access to gender-affirming care. When puberty and self-awareness come long before the age of 18, the state shouldn’t be dictating kids’ gender expression for them.

The GOP uses children as a tactic time and time again in their fight against individual freedoms—they pick a culture war topic and say its visibility is “harmful” to developing youth. It happened with gay people in the 1970s and 80s, and it’s happening now with gay and trans people and drag performers.

Children are people too, not political pawns.

Lawmakers like Zooey Zephyr and countless others in GOP-controlled states who have spoken out about these bills have my unwavering admiration and support. It’s not easy to be a minority—but in their convictions, defenders of transgender rights are actually a clear majority in this country.

Let’s put a trans person in Congress to fight with them at the federal level:

The GOP brands themselves the “party of freedom,” but these days they’re more often the party of tyranny.

It’s time to give trans people the national spotlight we need to affirm our rights.

In solidarity,

Maebe