A Look at How Polarization Punishes Minority Party Lawmakers

In Montana, the Republicans voted to not let a transgender lawmaker named Zooey Zephyr speak on the House floor for the rest of 2023. This happened after Zooey warned them about what could happen if these Republicans didn’t allow medical care that helps transgender youth. She said they would “see the blood” on their hands if they went through with it.

Politicians in state governments have been giving out strict punishments to people who share their ideas openly. Tennessee is one example.

The Republicans voted out two Democratic Representatives called Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. This happened after a shooting at a Nashville school that left six people dead including three kids. The Reps had been chanting with gun control supporters in the State House, which is why the Republicans made their decision. Usually the members of the Tennessee General Assembly are only expelled when they do something criminal.

Democratic representatives Rep. London Pearson and Rep. Jasmine Jones stood with protesters who wanted stricter gun laws, particularly a ban on certain guns known as ‘assault’ weapons. The Republican-controlled government punished only Pearson and Jones (both of whom are Black) for their actions – but Rep. Gloria Johnson (who is white) was not disciplined in any way.

Pearson and Jones were previously removed from their job positions, but they are now back working as usual until the end of August. In June, there will be an election for both of them to decide if they can stay for longer. Both Pearson and Jones have stated that they plan to participate in this election. On Monday, the three of them traveled to the White House and had a meeting with President Joe Biden.

A month ago, the Republican party in Oklahoma was really mad at a Democratic politician because they said this person wouldn’t let police officers ask questions to an activist involved in a protest against transgender rights laws. This activist had been accused of hurting a policeman.

Rep. Mauree Turner, who uses they/them pronouns and is the first openly nonbinary and Muslim person in Oklahoma to get elected to the legislature, was not allowed to keep their appointments on all committees due to a party-line vote. To stay a member of these committees, Rep. Turner was supposed to apologize to the Highway Patrol and others, but they refused because they felt that apologizing for loving the people of Oklahoma would be wrong.

The Oklahoma Legislature, which is led by Republicans, recently passed laws that would make it difficult for trans children to get medical care. This caused a lot of people to rally at the Capitol in protest. In March, things got messy when someone allegedly threw water on a state representative and fought with a police officer before getting arrested. Afterward, the activist was taken away and questioned.

Turner, who is Black and represents Oklahoma City, wants everyone to feel welcome when they visit the Capitol. In Arizona, a Republican lawmaker recently got kicked out because they made false claims that some public officials from both parties were taking bribes from Mexican drug gangs.

Rep. Liz Harris got in trouble with the Legislature and they voted to kick her out. This happened because the House Ethics Committee found out that she had been doing something bad which violated their rules.

The report said that Harris knew the person she invited to an event was going to accuse her friends of doing something bad without any proof. She made sure House leaders wouldn’t know before this happened and then lied about it when asked.

Rep. David Livingston thought that the agreement between everyone involved would be broken if they didn’t do something, so he voted for Harris to be expelled.

In January, Harris was given an official job position. She didn’t say anything before the decision of her expulsion was made. Afterwards, she and some of her supporters took boxes to her car and put them in the trunk. Harris stated that the ethics report about her was not honest.