Montana’s GOP-controlled state legislature voted to bar transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr from participating on the House floor for the rest of the 2023 session Wednesday.

The move comes after she refused to apologize for telling them last week that they would see blood on their hands over voting to prohibit gender-affirming care for children.

Zephyr will be allowed to vote remotely, but can’t talk about proposals and amendments that are being debated among the 99 Montana house members.

Zephyr said before the Wednesday vote she was taking a stand for the LGBTQ community, her constituents and “democracy itself.”

She accused House Speaker Matt Regier of trying to drive “a nail in the coffin of democracy” by silencing her.

“If you use decorum to silence people who hold you accountable, then all you’re doing is using decorum as a tool of oppression,” Zephyr said.

But House Majority Leader Sue Vinton accused Zephyr of putting lawmakers and staffers in danger because of her actions during protests in the chamber on Monday. 

She and other Republicans accused Zephyr of inciting the bombastic protest that interrupted House proceedings when protesters chanted “Let her speak” in the gallery of the statehouse.

Authorities arrested seven people during the chaotic scene.

“Freedom in this body involves obedience to all the rules of this body, including the rules of decorum,” Vinton said.

“This is an assault on our representative democracy, spirited debate, and the free expression of ideas cannot flourish in an atmosphere of turmoil and incivility,” Republican David Bedey also said on the House floor.

The censure motion was proposed after Republicans previously stopped Zephyr from speaking on the House floor until she apologized for telling lawmakers against gender-affirming care that “I hope the next time there’s an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands.”

While several protesters resisted cops’ attempt to arrest them, there were no reports of damage to the building and lawmakers were not threatened.

Zephyr argued the seven people that were taken into custody were defending democracy.

She also vowed not to apologize for the “blood on your hands” comment and insisted it was an accurate statement when it comes to the GOP’s effort to ban gender-affirming care for kids.  

Zephyr is the first openly transgender woman elected to Montana’s legislature after winning her election in 2022.

The censure motion was the first time in almost 50 years lawmakers sought that action against a colleague in Montana. 

With Post wires