Lawmakers sign off on governor’s amendments to bill banning gender-affirming care
Sen. Jen Gross, D-Billings, and Minority Leader Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, spoke in opposition, telling their colleagues it was their final chance to vote against what they called a bad bill and admonishing its supporters.
Gross said it appeared to her that legislators were in a contest over who could write the bill that hurts the most vulnerable Montanans.
“I don’t know whether to congratulate and thank the governor and the legislature or condemn and decry for producing and endorsing the biggest bullying bill I have seen in my legislative career,” Gross said, also questioning the governor’s claim he had met with transgender people this year.
“If you think that farmers know best about farming; ranchers know best about ranching; tow truck drivers know best about tow truck rigs; business owners know best about business; realtors know best about real estate, then let’s show some semblance of consistency and leave being trans and raising trans kids to the experts,” she added. “Those experts are their parents and their doctors.”
Flowers said the bill should never have been discussed in the first place while Montana deals with other issues needing to be addressed, like housing, child care, mental health and property taxes.
He said instead, the Republican supermajority had talked about parental rights repeatedly – “except when those parental rights violate whatever your standards are of propriety.”
“These amendments do nothing to improve this bill,” Flowers said. “They do nothing to spare trans Montanans the pain and suffering we heard about in hearings for hours.”
Sens. Wendy McKamey, R-Great Falls, Terry Vermeire, R-Anaconda, and Jeff Welborn, R-Dillon, joined Democrats in voting against the amendment from the governor, which passed 31-19.