Americans will forever remember where they were when they encountered the breaking news out of Montana on Wednesday night. Via the Associated Press: “Montana lawmakers deliberately misgender a transgender colleague.”
This national news story was occasioned by the Montana GOP’s display of hostility toward state Representative Zooey Zephyr, who became the target of criticism only for “language she used” while “speaking against a bill that would ban gender-affirming medical care for children,” according to the AP’s lead paragraph.
The Associated Press wasn’t alone in its characterization of events in Helena. “Montana Republicans call for censure of transgender lawmaker amid debate over ban of gender-affirming care for minors,” CNN reported. The New York Times provided further context: “‘Trans people exist,’ State Rep. Zooey Zephyr of Montana said, as she rebuked a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors, adding that denying care is ‘tantamount to torture,’” the paper reported. “Zephyr is the Legislature’s first transgender lawmaker.”
A casual reader could be forgiven for assuming from the information these outlets chose to highlight that Montana’s hopelessly rude and possibly bigoted GOP lawmakers singled out Zephyr for abuse and censorship out of spite. You’d have to be something more than a casual reader to learn that Zephyr invited the GOP’s backlash.
Zephyr spoke in opposition to a bill under debate in the state legislature that would prohibit certain medical treatments for minors who are diagnosed or have diagnosed themselves with gender dysphoria. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte requested amendments to that legislation to clarify that public funding would not be available to pay for surgical or pharmaceutical remedies for transitioning youth, and state lawmakers were debating those amendments when Zephyr made the comments that caught the GOP’s attention:
“The only thing I will say is if you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments,” Zephyr said, “I hope the next time there’s an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands.”
This indecorous slander irritated some Republicans — understandably so. Subsequently, during a pre-vote discussion on a bill designed to provide a “common definition for the word ‘sex’ when referring to a human” the following day, Zephyr sought to speak but was not recognized by the House speaker. The Associated Press picked up on this development and treated Americans to an update on the ordeal endured by this beleaguered lawmaker: “Transgender lawmaker silenced by Montana House speaker.”
All this sounds especially vindictive and capricious until you read local media’s account of how events in the Montana House actually transpired:
A rules committee meeting was then convened to discuss house rules and how they are implemented. After 30 minutes of debate a vote was taken and the Speaker’s ruling to not call on Rep. Zephyr stood. The ruling stood 63-31 in a vote by House members.
As of this writing, Zephyr has not been “silenced.” The lawmaker has not yet even been formally censured. Indeed, it was in the Montana Freedom Caucus’s call for Zephyr’s censure that they denounced “his threatening and deeply concerning comments,” thereby “misgendering” the lawmaker and rendering themselves the aggressors in this episode according to the national media.
This is all incomprehensibly backward. Montana Republicans were offended by the accusation that they were accomplices in acts of violence. Who wouldn’t be? In response to this provocation, they did not reserve the courtesy for Zephyr that was not shown to them, and they vented their frustrations at what they regarded as conduct unbecoming of the venue via the proper channels. That’s it. That’s the national news story here.
The effort to convey to readers that some other sequence of events occurred here is an act of deception. It is a campaign designed to create the impression that Zephyr is the victim of an unprovoked act of malice. This tidy narrative steals from Zephyr any personal agency or responsibility. In the press’s telling, Zephyr isn’t capable of human failings such as overheated rhetoric or emotional reasoning. Instead, this lawmaker has been reduced to an avatar of a group — a group that is only ever victimized, never the victimizer.
This is not journalism. It’s activism.