Republican lawmakers in Montana’s House of Representatives voted to pass a bathroom ban despite pleas from two of their colleagues — Reps. Zooey Zephyr (D) and SJ Howell (D) — that this bill would adversely affect them and transgender people like them.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe (R), bans trans people from using restrooms in public buildings, including schools, prisons, jails, and domestic violence shelters, that align with their gender identities. It would also allow anyone who encounters a trans or nonbinary person in one of the aforementioned facilities to sue that person or whoever granted their entry up to two years after the encounter.
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Seekins-Crow — who two years ago said that she would rather have a dead daughter than a trans child — said that the bill was necessary to protect women’s “privacy or safety,” which she said were under attack because of “cultural trends.” Trans people have been around forever and are not a trend, and there is no evidence to support the notion that trans women are a threat to cis women.
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“Trans people walk through the state of Montana afraid enough already,” Zephyr said during debate over the bill. “Leave trans people alone. Let me be the woman I’m happy to be. Let me live my life.”
Republicans also had another argument in favor of the bill: Some trans women are lesbians, which means that they will “get off” in the women’s restroom.
State Rep. Jedediah Hinkle (R) told the chamber that he knew a trans person who was “not attracted to men” and was “attracted to women,” in a video shared online by independent journalist Erin Reed.
“So we have an individual who is dressing like a woman, changing [their] name to a woman but is also at the same time attracted to women,” he explained, as if he had never heard of lesbians before.
Hinkle then brought up a cisgender male janitor who would “go into women’s restrooms and sit and listen to women going potty because that is how he got off.” The implication being that lesbians shouldn’t be allowed to use the women’s restroom because they experience sexual pleasure from bathroom noises.
The bill passed in a 58-42 party-line vote. It needs to be voted on once again in the state house and then it will go to the state senate, where Republicans have a majority.
In December, the Montana Joint House and Senate Rules committees voted 10-12 to reject an amendment banning trans people from using the appropriate facilities at the state capitol.
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