MT: SJ Howell on delivering for Missoula and being the 'last transgender voice' on the House floor
Rep. SJ Howell said they needed to check the status of a child care bill before they could sit down to talk.
“Otherwise, I’ll be thinking about it the whole time,” the Missoula Democrat said.
Howell, a transgender non-binary Missoula Democrat who goes by they/them pronouns, spoke to the Daily Montanan at the tail end of a whirlwind week, the last of the 2023 legislative session.
Besides the typical end-of-session rush, the Montana Legislature took national center stage after a protest erupted in the House gallery last Monday following the third time Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a transgender woman who also serves as a Democrat representing Missoula, wasn’t recognized to speak on the floor by House Speaker Rep. Matt Regier, R-Kalispell.
After Zephyr’s ensuing censure last Wednesday, Howell was the last transgender voice on the House floor.
Howell said Friday they felt deeply unhappy at business as usual.
“We all feel the weight of what has happened, and when we sat on the floor yesterday, our first floor session without Zooey,” Howell said in an interview with the Daily Montanan on Friday. “The biggest thing that I feel is having to participate in a system that has fundamentally broken down.”
https://dailymontanan.com/2023/05/04/sj-howell-on-delivering-for-missoula-and-being-the-last-transgender-voice-on-the-house-floor/
