 Welcome to Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The Biden administration's announced plans to open processing centers across Latin America where asylum seekers would have to request permission to come to the United States, blocking tens of thousands from seeking relief at the U.S.-Mexico border. The first processing centers will be located in Guatemala and Colombia. Migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean will be forced to journey to one of the nearest centers to start an asylum application or ask for refugee status to then be resettled to either the United States, Canada or Spain. The U.S. has agreed to take in 20,000 refugees over the next two fiscal years, while doubling or tripling the rapid deportations of migrants who are deemed not eligible to enter the United States. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandra Mayorkas and Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out the sweeping measures Thursday, threatening migrants at the southern U.S. border with harsher consequences, including possible criminal charges. This is Mayorkas. Beginning on May 12, we will place eligible individuals who arrive at our southern border in expedited removal proceedings. Those who arrive at our border and do not have a legal basis to stay will have made the journey, often having suffered horrific trauma and having paid their life savings to the smugglers, only to be quickly removed. They will be removed most often in a matter of days and just a few weeks. This comes as the United States is preparing to lift the Trump-era Title 42 pandemic policy in May, which for the past three years has been used to expel some 2.7 million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border without due process. Immigrant justice advocates have denounced the Biden administration for violating international law and enforcing policies similar to those pushed by Donald Trump. The new measures exclude migrants from Africa. Eleanor Acer of Human Rights First said in a statement, quote, the Biden administration should focus on measures like increasing refugee resettlement in regular pathways and abandon its plan to impose an asylum ban that would be a legal, moral and political mistake, end quote. In Sudan, heavy explosions and gunfire continue to ring out across the capital Khartoum, even after Sudan's army agreed to a 72-hour extension of a humanitarian ceasefire with the rival Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group. There are reports of fighting near Sudan's army headquarters, the presidential palace and Khartoum's main airport. Residents report severe shortages of flour and other staple foods. People are not thinking about anything except worrying about themselves, their families and extended families. The situation now is that the food supplies are dwindling, and citizens will soon face a famine or at least a crushing food crisis. Even before fighting erupted between rival factions of Sudan's military government on April 15, the third of Sudan's 46 million people were dependent on humanitarian aid. Back in the United States, attacks on transgender rights continued Thursday as Republican lawmakers in Kansas overrode a veto by Democratic Governor Laura Kelly, enacting the most sweeping bathroom law in the nation. The legislation bars trans people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity in schools, locker rooms, prisons, domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers. In Nebraska, Democratic State Senator Megan Hunt is facing a conflict of interest investigation after a right-wing lawmaker complained she did not officially disclosate a transgender child before voting against a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors. Senator Hunt blasted the probe as harassment. Meanwhile, in Montana, Republican Gover Greg Genforte's own son, David, whose non-binary, lobbied his dad to reject a series of bills attacking the trans community, including restrictions on healthcare and banning drag shows, after headlines will be joined by Montana's first and only openly transgender lawmaker Zoe Zephyr, whom Republicans have barred from the House floor for speaking up for transgender rights. In reproductive rights news, near total abortion bans failed to advance in two conservative lead states. Thursday, South Carolina and Nebraska both narrowly defeated draconian anti-choice measures, allowing the procedure to remain legal until 22 weeks of pregnancy. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Vermont passed a bill Thursday, further protecting access to abortion, including medication abortion, as well as gender-affirming healthcare by shielding providers from liability. On Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans filibustered to block ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would codify gender equality in the Constitution. The measure was first introduced a century ago and passed 50 years ago, but has never been ratified. As conservative opponents have argued, the deadline for ratification has expired. Ahead of Thursday's vote, women, House Democrats marched to the Senate to demand their colleagues pass the ERA. Legal experts believe its ratification would have helped prevent mounting attacks on LGBTQ communities and reproductive rights. The Senate's voted to rollback emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks set by the White House. Conservative West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin joined Republicans in Wednesdays 50 to 49 vote, setting up a veto by President Biden if the Republican-led House also passes the measure. This comes after environmental groups and some Democrats condemned Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm's endorsement of the Mountain Valley Fract Gas Pipeline earlier this week. Arizona Congressmember Raul Garhava said in a statement, quote, "...fully green lighting the pipeline will condemn Appalachian communities to generations of pollution and related health and safety issues while also doing nothing for our ambitious climate goals," he said. Demanding urgent action on the climate crisis have ramped up across the United States. On Thursday, a pair of protesters smeared red and black paint on a glass case housing artwork at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., demanding President Biden declare a climate emergency. This follows demonstrations earlier this week outside the offices of banking giant Citibank in New York and Wells Fargo in San Francisco. A new study titled Banking on Climate Chaos finds the world's largest private banks loaned $5.5 trillion to fossil fuel projects since nations signed the Paris Climate Agreement. On Tuesday, climate activists interrupted a talk by John Podesta, who heads the White House Office of Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation. They were demanding the Biden administration reverse its approval of Conoco Phillips Willow Project in Northern Alaska and act swiftly to end the use of fossil fuels. The protest was organized by climate defiance. It's a new organization that's vowed to disrupt the annual White House Correspondence Dinner in Washington, D.C. this weekend. Former Vice President Mike Pence has appeared before the federal grand jury investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. His testimony Thursday came a day after a federal appeals court rejected an emergency request to quash special counsel Jack Smith's subpoena of Pence by Trump's lawyers, who cited claims of executive privilege. Vice Media is cancelling its award-winning show Vice News Tonight as part of the company's mass layoff of over 100 workers, including most of its audio team. Vice is the latest media outlet to cut jobs after BuzzFeed last week announced its shutting down BuzzFeed News. Vice Union said on Twitter, quote, these workers are suffering the consequences of years of poor decisions they played no part in. And the white woman whose discredited accusations led to the lynching death of black teenager Emmett Till in Mississippi seven decades ago has died of cancer at the age of 88. It was 1955 when Carolyn Bryant Dunham accused Emmett Till of whistling at her in her store. That prompted Till's abduction, torture and murder. Dunham's husband and his half-brother were tried for the lynching and acquitted by an all-white jury. In 2007, Dunham confessed she had fabricated her claim, leading the FBI to reopen Till's case. But the Justice Department ended its investigation in 2021 without filing charges. Last year, a team searching for evidence in Emmett Till's case found an unserved warrant charging Dunham in his kidnapping. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report, I'm Amy Goodman. We begin today's show in Montana, where the Republican-controlled State House of Representatives voted Wednesday to censure the state's first and only openly transgender lawmaker Zoe Zephyr, banning her from the House floor and forbidding her from speaking during floor sessions. Zephyr will only be able to cast votes remotely for the remainder of the legislative session. The move comes a week after Representative Zephyr delivered a searing condemnation of a bill that would ban gender-affirming health care for youth. If you disallow the use of the medical care that is accepted by every major medical association, if you disallow that care and don't allow people to have access to that, the only therapy left is either A, meaningless, or B, conversion therapy, which is torture. If you are forcing a trans child to go through puberty when they are trans, that is tantamount to torture. And this body should be ashamed. And if you vote yes on this amendment and yes on this bill, if you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there's an indication, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands. After this speech, Republican lawmakers in Montana moved to censure Zoe Zephyr. Ahead of a vote to ban her from the House floor, she addressed her fellow lawmakers again. Today I rise in defense of those constituents, of my community, and of democracy itself. Last week, I spoke on the governor's amendments to Senate Bill 99, which banned gender-affirming care. This was a bill that was one of many targeting the LGBTQ community in Montana. This legislature has systematically attacked that community. We have seen bills targeting our art forms, our books, our history, and our health care. And I rose up in defense of my community that day, speaking to harms that these bills bring and that I have firsthand experience knowing about. I have had friends who have taken their lives because of these bills. I have fielded calls from families in Montana, including one family whose trans teenager attempted to take her life while watching a hearing on one of the anti-trans bills. So when I rose up and said, there is blood on your hands, I was not being hyperbolic. I was speaking to the real consequences of the votes that we as legislators take in this body. And when the speaker asks me to apologize, what he is on behalf of decorum, what he is really asking me to do is be silent when my community is facing bills that get us killed. He's asking me to be complicit in this legislature's eradication of our community, and I refuse to do so, and I will always refuse to do so. That was state representative Zoe Zephyr. Montana's first and only openly transgender lawmaker. The Republican-led Montana legislature has voted to ban her from the House floor and has forbid her from speaking there. Well, Zoe Zephyr is refusing to stay silent and joins us now from Montana's capital, Helena, Montana. Welcome to Democracy Now! State Representative Zoe Zephyr. You represent Missoula, a place that's very close to my heart. My first college roommate was from Missoula. Her dad was the band leader at Heligate High. Talk about what happened on the House floor and your response to the censure saying you cannot speak in the House of Representatives from the floor. What we saw in the vote to censure me, it was inherently undemocratic. When the speaker had been refusing to recognize me for my comments on Senate Bill 99, he was taking away the voice of the Montanans who elected me to speak on their behalf. And when those community members showed up in protest and said, let her speak, let her speak, and he gaffled him down, he was continuing that process of silencing the people who sent me there to represent them. And talk about what this anti-trans bill is. Why are you so fiercely objected to it? The bill we were looking at bans gender-affirming care for trans youth in the state of Montana. And that begins with something as simple as social transitioning. That's what the earliest form of gender-affirming care is, which is letting someone grow their hair out or cut it short, go by a different name, etc. And this bill banned the use of state property for advocating for anything like that. As you get older, it looks like going on puberty blockers. Again, and this healthcare is done slowly, carefully, in conjunction with the child, the parent, and your chronologists, health practitioners following best practices by every major medical association. And so when you're looking at bills that take that necessary care away, what you're looking at is things that make the conditions for trans people impossible in our state. The motion to censure you was introduced by the Montana House Majority Leader, Representative Sue Vinton, a Republican from Billings, Montana. This is what she said about you Wednesday ahead of the vote. Every member of a legislature is presumed to be the equal of each member, and each has rights that must be respected. The rights of the minority and the majority both must be protected. Freedom in this body involves obedience to all the rules of this body, including the rules of decorum. Monday, this body witnessed one of its members participating in conduct that disrupted and disturbed the orderly proceedings of this body. This member did not accede to the order of the speaker to come to order and finally to clear the floor and instead encouraged the continuation of the disruption of this body. Your response to Vinton's comments. So when we talk about every member being equal to one another, it's important to note the way that they are applying the rules of decorum unequally. We have had legislators who have screamed in their closing. We have legislators who insinuated that my very existence is somehow sexualizing children. And we objected in the moment and then we moved on. Decorum rules weren't used. There were hearings where we begged the Republican chairs not to allow harmful discriminatory language. And they said a lot of people have a lot of opinions will carry on. So what you're seeing here is a Republican controlled legislature using a tool like decorum as a way to silence those who are holding them accountable for the very real harm that their their bills bring. Now just understand what's happening to you right now. You were sitting in a hallway trying to work Thursday. You've been banned from the House floor and they tried to kick you out of the hallway as well. Can you talk about the Montana Freedom Caucus, which called for your immediate censure, who also deliberately misgendered you in a statement they wrote. So much like the unequal and hypocritical ways the quorum has been enforced. I'm not surprised that the Freedom Caucus would misgender me in the same moment that they call for civility and discourse. It's a caucus that calls for limited government while simultaneously using government to take away necessary and life-saving health care for people in my community. And I sat down Thursday. I walked in and I said I want to be as close to the people's house as I can be so I can speak to legislators so that even despite the fact that my voice and the voice of my constituents isn't allowed on the floor, I can do everything in my power to make sure their voice is heard. Tell us about your decision, State Representative Zephyr, to run for office and the significance with you being the only the first transgender lawmaker in Montana. So I testified last session in 2021 and as I was testifying on a transport span, I saw that the people listening on the panels didn't seem to want to hear. And then I watched votes on anti-trans legislation passed by a single vote. And I thought, I need to be in that room. You need representation in that room if you're ever going to be able to move the needle. And so I was happy to run, go through my community where I lived and walked through and spend all of my time. And they were gracious enough to elect me and I'm happy to serve in Montana alongside Representative S.J. Howell, who's the first, the state's first non-binary representative. So tell us about the other anti-trans and bills targeting the LGBTQ community that are going through the Montana legislature. And then talk about where the governor stands. So we're seeing an array of bills targeting the LGBTQ community and particularly the trans community. We've seen books that are trying, we've seen bills that are trying to ban our books under the guise of obscenity laws. We've seen bills that are trying to ban our art forms under the anti-drag laws. We've seen bills that tell students they're allowed to misgender people. We've seen bills that say trans people don't get health care and even if they have access to health care, medical practitioners who don't want to provide it can just ignore you for any reason. And these bills, again, as I mentioned, began with the sports bands. And so we're seeing the moment people got a foot in the door saying, oh, trans equality has limitations. They put an asterisk on that. As soon as that got in, they started escalating the attacks, which is what we're seeing in Montana and across the country as well. And Governor Gianforte, whose own son, David, is non-binary, who's labied his dad to reject the series of bills attacking the trans community? You know, I have not had direct contact with the governor's office on these bills. I have spoke to folks in his staff about these bills and how their harmful policy, how they hurt our community and how, quite frankly, communities in Montana do not want this. And so one of the things it's important to remember is that trans people, we live lives full of joy. We walk through and are a part of our communities. And so whether you're working a day job in an office or you're the governor of the state of Montana, you are never far from someone who is trans or non-binary and worthy of love. And let me ask you about what happened in Nebraska, Democratic State Senator Megan Hunt, facing a so-called conflict of interest investigation after a right-wing lawmaker complained she didn't officially disclose that she had a transgender child before voting against a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors. She is saying that the probe is harassment. I think that much like Tennessee, much like here, much like Representative Maury Turner in Oklahoma, what you're seeing is far-right legislators are passing policies or bringing policies forward that are incredibly harmful, get marginalized communities hurt and killed and those communities and the people that care about those communities are beginning to rise up and say, this isn't acceptable. This isn't something we can stand for, and we're holding them accountable to the real harm that these bills do. And obviously the attacks on Senator Hunt are harassment. You wouldn't expect every time a bill on public education came up, someone to disclose that their child went to a public school. This is targeting a way much like Decorum was used against me. They're looking for processes and procedures in the rulebook that they can use to justify silencing and targeting someone for standing up for vulnerable communities. Montana State Representative Zoe Zephyr, we are going to break and then come back. And we're going to invite Justin Jones into this conversation. I am wondering if they decided to simply ban you from the floor, that's not hardly simply, but and not expel you entirely, precisely of what happened to the Justin's in Tennessee, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson of Memphis and Nashville, because they were reinstated by their communities. We'll be back with Democratic Montana State Representative Zoe Zephyr in a moment. We'll be joined by Tennessee State Representative Justin Jones. Stay with us. This is Democracy Now! I'm Amy Goodman. From Montana to Tennessee, we're speaking to lawmakers who've been expelled or silenced by the Republican colleagues. Joining us now in Washington, D.C. is Justin Jones. Earlier this month, a largely white Tennessee House of Representatives with its heavily gerrymandered Republican supermajority expelled Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, the two youngest black representatives in the Tennessee House. They stood accused of breaching House decorum for non-violently protesting the Chamber's inaction on gun violence in the wake of the March 27th Mass School shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville where three nine-year-olds and three adults were killed. Days after being expelled, both Jones and Pearson were temporarily reinstated to their seats by local authorities. Earlier this week, the two Justin's, along with Gloria Johnson, a white lawmaker who narrowly escaping expelled, met with President Biden at the White House. What the Republican legislature did was shocking. It was undemocratic and it was without any precedent, but you turn it around very quickly. And look, we passed the most significant gun laws that have passed in 30 years with more to do. You understand exactly what it's like. It's just tragic to see what's happening in your state in particular, in your city, but also across the country. And, you know, nothing's guaranteed about democracy. Every generation has to fight for it as you are doing just that. After their meeting with the President, State Representative Justin Jones spoke outside the White House. We lifted this issue above the partisan divide that this is not left or right, but we talked to the President about how this is a moral issue, an issue of conscience, an issue in the south where we are trying to build multiracial democracy and challenge these extreme forces that, rather than passing an assault weapons ban, they assaulted our democracy as we saw when we were expelled from the state legislature. And so we talked to the President, Vice President, about why it's so critical for us to continue to lift up these movements in the south, to continue to lift up this multiracial movement of reconstruction that we're experiencing right now. We come here to say that the south will rise anew. We represent a new south, that is rising, and that if we can transform the south, we can transform this nation. If we can get common sense gun laws passed in the south, we can get them passed in this nation. And so we hope that the national media will lift up what's happening in the south, because our people are pushing forward a new vision. And I think it's going to be a point where we are on the right side of history, and those who stand against us are not. Well, Tennessee lawmaker Justin Jones is still in Washington, D.C., and is joining us from there now. We last spoke to you in Nashville, the city that you represent, actually still represent, even though you were expelled. Can you talk, Justin Jones, it's so great to have you back with us, about what it meant to be reinstated and then what it meant to meet with President Biden, with Bernie Sanders, with the Black Caucus and others, and what you're calling for now. Yes. Well, it's so good to be here again, Amy, and what it means is that the movement continues, is that as we saw in Tennessee, Tennessee has set a very dangerous precedent for the nation, with what happened to my friend here, Representative Zephyr in Montana, what's going on in Nebraska, and what's going to continue to happen as we see this rising tide of fascism and authoritarianism that's taken hold of our nation, and we see this weaponization of decorum, to silence dissent, to silence voices that make people uncomfortable, and that's really what they're doing, is diverging from their dominant narrative. And so to be here in D.C., we continue to lift up this struggle to nationalize what is going on, because it's not just going to impact us in Tennessee and in Montana, but it's really going to impact our nation that an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. And so we continue to push the White House, and I've been grateful to meet with many members here in the Capitol to let them know that from our state services to the U.S. Capitol, we are facing some very dangerous trends in our democracy. I mean, connecting what happened to us to January 6th, which was an attempt to stop an election, to stop democracy. And so we have to stand together and we must show that we are not going to be divided and conquered, but that we're united in our struggle for multiracial democracy, and I'm lifting voices that have been often pushed to the margins. Justin Jones, you were elected to be state representative in November, before that you were well known in Nashville, Black Lives Matter activists. In fact, you had taken on House Speaker before. You're now calling for Cameron Sexton's resignation. But you had pushed and successfully pushed for the removal of the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest from the state Capitol Rotunda, Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first grand dragon of the Ku Klux clan, the Ku Klux Klan born in Tennessee. You ultimately won your battle but Cameron Sexton voted against removing the founding grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan's bust from the state Capitol. Is that right? Were you able to hear that question, Justin? I just missed the last part. Oh, I was just asking you won the removal of the bust of the founding grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan Nathan Bedford Forrest from the state Capitol Rotunda. The House Speaker whose resignation you continue to call for voted against removing his bust Ku Klux Klan born in Tennessee. Is that right? That's correct. And what we're seeing in Tennessee is this battle of us representing a new south. You know, the south that does not accept symbols to the white supremacy and the confederacy and racial tier. But we were trying to represent a new south that represents multiracial democracy and human rights, a south that affirms human dignity across race, across sexuality, across immigration status. You know, we want to say that, you know, the southern segregation has had a saying that the south will rise again. We stand as a new generation to say that the south will rise anew and that the south is a front line and this battle against white supremacy and transphobia and homophobia and xenophobia and misogyny and economic exploitation we represent this new voice and that's really what they're trying to expel Amy was not just us as individual lawmakers but what we represent and this vision of the future that they're so fearful of because it means one in which all of our voices are heard and all of our people are treated with respect and protected and not just the voices of a small white power structure of man of a particular religion and particular economic status who've dominated our politics for so long. Can you talk about the state legislature trying to give immunity to the gun manufacturers this vote right after the mass shooting in Nashville the city you represent that killed three nine-year-olds and three adults? I mean it is immoral that the only gun law that we passed took the lives of three nine-year-olds and three adults and it was not the first mass shooting in Nashville as well we had the shooting five years ago last week at the Waffle House in Nashville and so what they decided to do was say let's not protect kids as we've been asking but let's protect firearms manufacturers from lawsuits this is how immoral it is that we're dealing with people who care more about the profits of the gun industry then they do the lives of our children then they do the safety of our community and it's immoral and it shows where their allegiance is to to these special interests it shows the corruption of money in our political system that's the first action they take in light of a mass shooting was to pass that law and also to expel the two young black lawmakers this is the way that they are moving and so it's not democracy it is mobocracy it is terror for our communities and it is insulting to the victims of this mass shooting in their families that is the step four that they're taking and also to armed teachers as well as the other proposals they had and it's just it is so hurtful for our people who are grieving still and demanding that we pass common sense gun laws that the majority of Tennesseans across the political spectrum support red flag laws and ban on assault weapons universal background checks and safe storage that's what we should be passing before we bring Representative Zephyr back into the conversation I wanted to ask you now about what's happening with you and Justin Pearson you're back in as state representatives in supermajority but you now have to go through an election both in Nashville and in Memphis the two of you to because you were expelled how much does this cost when is this going to happen yes so we have two elections we have a primary in a month and we have a general in August and it's all being you know at the expense of the taxpayer to run again and I know and so we're going to be pushing and we're going to be running an active campaign because we know that this is not just about us but it's a referendum on democracy and that's what we're going to be fighting for and pushing for is that their attempt to expel us was an attempt to make a spectacle of authoritarianism that if you dare dissent if you dare challenge the dominant power structure this is what will happen to you but I also want to say too is that though Representative Pearson and myself are back we're still not being allowed to speak on the house floor we still have not been given committees again so they've stripped our committees from us and so they're doing everything they can to make us feel like second class members though our community sent us back there after being expelled to represent them unanimously in the Memphis Council and in the National City Council and so it is it is extreme what's going on you know we're still unwelcome in the people's house but like I told somebody we're not there to make friends with them these are our colleagues and the voices of our constituents you know some of the most diverse districts in the state of Tennessee who deserve to be heard and every time they silence us they silence our constituents and that's why we must fight so hard against these authoritarians and these fascists who've taken hold of our state government well speaking of being silenced that brings us to bring in Democratic Montana State Representative Zoe Zephyr of Missoula Montana the first transgender woman ever elected to the Montana Legislature and led state legislature has now banned her from the House floor and also forbid her from speaking there I'm wondering is this the first time the two of you as state legislators are publicly speaking together I believe we spoke together a couple days ago briefly but this will be the second time well I want to know first Justin Jones if you could address state legislator Zoe Zephyr to talk about what this has meant for you and your reaction to what happened to her and is there any move for state legislators around the country to ban together the silence to refuse to remain silent definitely well Representative Zephyr we talked on the phone of the day of this horrible and moral decision to censure her and just knows that we stand together and as I said that night and as I said that day an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us and so we are united from Tennessee to Montana to Nebraska to Florida as I was just talking to some lawmakers there against this trend toward authoritarianism that's silencing voices who need to be heard and if you look if you look at what we represented it represents the future of our politics people who are who are proximate to these issues should have a voice in challenging them when it comes to the safety of our communities when it comes to the well-being of our communities when it comes to what democracy should be in our states and so Representative Zephyr knows that I'm standing with you that whatever I can do to show up with solidarity to push back and let them know that we're not going to be divided that we see this as a united struggle that we see this as a struggle in which solidarity, deep solidarity matters in which I'm resisting together against these forces of authoritarianism that is going to be something that we continue to do nationwide and so thank you for your courage and I'm just so grateful to see when you walked out you had that same feeling of dignity you walked out with your head held high and because we know that we are on the right side of history and so it's just beautiful to see those photos that you were unbound that you were pushing forward and that you did not let them shame you but you saw that the community stands with you the people of this nation stand with you and will continue to push forward and be afraid and and unbound against these forces and state representative Zoe Zephyr if you could respond and talk about the effect it had on you this is right before you were centered seeing Justin Pearson and Justin Jones being expelled from the state legislature did you at that point have any sense what was going to happen to you I didn't but I think you know what people keep saying is courage is contagious when you watch people stand up for what is right to defend their community when marginalized groups come together and say as representative Jones has said an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us when you see people stand up it drives you to stand up similarly and that's also why as one of the first groups to come out in support of me was Montana's American Indian caucus who said this is an inappropriate undemocratic attack on representative Zephyr and they know that firsthand because they've experienced that and the attacks on the Native American community in our state and across our country goes way back before the attacks on trans people that we're seeing today and Zoe Zephyr what has been the response of the people who elected you I mean as I was saying around Tennessee it's not as if you're fired from a store that you're working at you were elected and so you have these other representatives who are saying the city of Missoula cannot have their elected representative speak what does it mean for them and when does this banishment end so that has been you know I've seen pride from my community they have said thank you so much first and foremost thank you for standing up for saying the things we elected you to say to hold the powerful accountable to the harm that they do and then I've also seen them express frustration when they copy me on their messages to Republican leadership saying you're taking our voice they're sending that message in emails they showed up at the Capitol to send that message and say you're taking away our representation and that's not democratic and going forward I showed up yesterday as best I can and I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that the people who elected me the 11,000 Montanans who elected me have representation in the people's house and let me ask you Justin Jones about the anti-trans laws being passed in the Tennessee legislature the Biden administration has filed suit against Tennessee's ban on life-saving care for transgender youth can you talk about that in the position you took yeah I mean all session we've been challenging the slate of hate Tennessee has had 27 anti-LGBTQ laws this session more than any other state being pushed in our legislature laws to ban drag shows attack trans youths health care to challenge equality in marriage it's just been this very hateful agenda that we saw and we've resisted it at every step and we were, you know, myself, Representative Pearson Representative Johnson were some of the most vocal voices challenging this anti-LGBTQ agenda and so you know we're glad that the federal government is intervening and is challenging that law that will harm our youth and which we shared on the House floor this is harmful to the youth of Tennessee and it's very dangerous policy for these lawmakers to try and be doctors as they often try and do and so we have challenged it and we know that this challenge of attacking the LGBTQ community of attacking people of color of attacking immigrants is really an attack on democracy is really an attack on our future and the futures that we represent and so we are again, once again, fighting together united in this struggle against those who would try and scapegoat members of our community against those who would try and use members of our community as punching bags to distract from their failures to distract from their failures at the fact that in states like ours one in five children live in poverty the majority of people are struggling to get by because they're waging a cultural war instead of waging a war on poverty instead of waging a war to protect our communities from this wave of environmental injustice that is plaguing our communities and of a corporate attacks that are really denigrating our people who have to struggle between getting groceries or paying for their prescriptions I mean this is what we're dealing with is really an attempt to divide and conquer and we will not cooperate with that and we will not accept that because we know that what are the real issues in our community and that's not an issue that they're making manufacturing to distract from their failures is not the issues that we should be focused on Representative Jones in your state in Tennessee, the Grammy-winning rapper and singer Lizzo recently invited dozens of drag performers on stage during a Knoxville concert protesting Republicans efforts to ban public drag performances in the state your governor, Tennessee Republican Governor Billy signed the measure into law last February but it was blocked by a federal judge the following month who argued it was too vaguely written were you there? I was not at the concert but I was on the House floor fighting that bill and I said actually three weeks before the mass shooting happened at Covenant on the House floor I said why are we focusing on drag shows with this danger to our youth the real danger to our youth the number one cause of death in our youth that we should be focused on our mass shootings is gun violence and I said this before the shooting even occurred because we knew what the threat to our youth was we know what it is and they tried to make drag shows an issue which has never been an issue the lawmakers who presented this bill were just simply trying to instigate hate against a community the LGBTQ community and so we're grateful for others like Lizzo who have come to our state where we passed more lawsuits than laws to be quite honest Amy and so we knew that this was unconstitutional we said it in committee and on the House floor and a lot of the laws we're seeing are going to continue to be challenged hopefully in the courts to overturn this arrogance of a supermajority that passes laws targeting vulnerable communities and marginalized communities Representative Zoe Zephyr we're going to end with you you know I remember 10 years ago I or maybe it's a little more or a little less where every state was passing putting a referendum or measures on election day or before against same-sex marriage and the point of that was they couldn't get people out enough people to vote for conservative candidates but that would rev people up to go to the polls and then they would vote for the conservative candidates well that was a movement at the time and it completely failed conservatives well as progressives and liberals that was just that's not their issue anymore and so now you have this issue of drag shows who are trans laws and I'm wondering if you could end by talking about what this means in your community to be used in this way I think you get that perfectly you know when we see a tax on LGBTQ people whether that was back in the 90s or today it's trying to drum up fear stoke and other a community but the fact is trans people we live in our communities we are known in our communities and we are loved broadly in our communities which is why this effort ultimately is going to fail because when they're attacking trans people they're not just attacking us they're attacking our loved ones who care about us our co-workers our community members who care about us and in the same way that other marginalized groups are rising up and saying this isn't acceptable that's what we're seeing with our communities coming up and saying no you can't do this to trans people we love them we care about them and it's ultimately why even though we're seeing these attacks in the legislatures and they're going to fail in the courts they've already lost in our communities because we're loved Democratic Montana State Representative for the first transgender woman ever elected to the Montana legislature she has been banned by the Republican led legislature from the House floor forbidding her from speaking I want to thank you for being with us from Helena you represent Missoula and Justin Jones Democratic Tennessee State Representative Nashville recently reinstated after the Republican Supermajority heavily gerrymandered House of Representatives voted to expel him and his colleague Justin Pearson they were reinstated by their own communities until there's a special election thank you both for being with us coming up we look at president Biden's plan to send us nuclear arms submarines to South Korea stay with us this is democracy now democracy now dot org the warrant peace report I'm Amy Goodman as we end today's show looking at the crisis on the Korean Peninsula on Thursday South Korean president Yoon Suk-yul addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress and worn nuclear threat posed by North Korea on Wednesday Joe Biden pledged to deploy nuclear arms submarines to South Korea for the first time in 40 years into establish a new bilateral nuclear consultative group where the United States would involve officials from South Korea and nuclear planning operations targeting North Korea on Wednesday President Biden issued a stark warning to North Korea nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States its allies and partisans partners is unacceptable and will result in the end of whatever regime were to take such an action President Biden was speaking in the Rose Garden at a news conference with the South Korean president to talk more about his visit to Washington and tension on the Korean Peninsula I'm joined now by Christine Ahn, founder and executive director of Women Cross DMZ a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War Christine is also the coordinator of the campaign Korea Peace Now speaking to us from Hawaii and we thank you for being up in the middle of the night for this conversation Christine talk about the significance of the meeting at the White House between the U.S. and South Korean presidents and what President Biden has promised Amy thanks for having me on the announcement that the U.S. would send nuclear armed submarines to South Korea is a very provocative and dangerous move it's the first time that U.S. nuclear weapons have been on or around the Korean Peninsula in 40 years in fact most Americans have no idea that the nuclear crisis actually began with the U.S. bringing nuclear weapons to South Korea from 1956 three years after the signing of the ceasefire and had them there up until George Bush Senior so that is not only a provocative act directed at North Korea but also at China and this is actually throwing fuel into already into a fire that has been increasingly dangerous there have been massive military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea spring all last year last year I think North Korea conducted 90 missile tests and the situation is just getting even more dangerous there is a three star general Dan Lee who says of all the conflicts currently taking place right now whether it's between U.S. China over Taiwan or the Russia Ukraine war that the Korean Peninsula is perhaps the one that may be the closest to a nuclear war so it is a very dangerous moment and the fact that the U.S. will be sending U.S. nuclear submarines to the Korean Peninsula and for Biden to make such a statement that is akin to Trump's fire and fury era where he threatened to totally destroy North Korea this is a wake-up call I think for the American people and obviously for South Koreans who feel that Yoon is basically drawing the Korean Peninsula on the front line of the U.S. war against China Well Christine this actually is being built as a compromise as part of the agreement President Yoon renewed a pledge not to pursue the development of a South Korean nuclear arsenal your response Well it is in the sense that there is growing concern in South Korea for its own domestic nuclear weapons program in light of the tactical nuclear weapons coming from North Korea or the program in North Korea but I think the problem is it is not addressing the underlying issue which is that the Korean Peninsula is continually at a state of war this is actually the 70th anniversary of the ceasefire this July 27th marks 70 years that the U.S. commander the North Korean commander and the Chinese representative from the voluntary people's army signed the armistice agreement where they committed to halting the war but they never actually followed up with their commitment which was to return within 90 days to negotiate a peace settlement so what we're facing is this continual militarization South Korea now is the sixth largest military spender in the world the U.S. we know is the world's largest our budget approaching a trillion dollars and the next nine countries combined and it is an unsustainable crisis and I think the way that the narrative of deterrence is as if there isn't violence as if they are preparing to prevent violence in the future when in fact we know violence is taking place right now whether it's the division of families whether it's the suffering of the North Korean people whether it's the ongoing investment in militarization that should be otherwise invested in things that make us secure I mean I think about I'm here in Hawaii and we're facing the Red Hill crisis where you know this militarization means we are polluting Oahu's aquifer and this is the jet fuel that will basically fuel the ships or the ships that will go and wage wars in Asia so we have to break down this mythology that this is actually what is making us secure when in fact what we need to do is negotiate a peace agreement and that is gaining traction among people from the military to nuclear scientists to people like President Carter we have to normalize relations with North Korea to achieve the things that we want can you talk about this mobilization to end the Korean war scheduled for the end of July and also talk about China's response to all of this well first just since we're short on time I want to make sure that we are mobilizing hundreds to come to Washington DC I hope Amy you will be there or somebody from Democracy Now but July 27th marks the 70th anniversary of the Armistice and we are saying it's time to end this war this war that inaugurated the military industrial complex for the United States it set forth the US to become the world's police and it has been the war that has maintained this constant threat on the Korean Peninsula so we are gathering multiple organizations faith-based vets for peace and Korean American coalition so we are gathering the website is koreapieceaction.org and we'll be having a congressional briefing with our peace champions we want to also raise awareness that there is the first ever peace on the Korean Peninsula Act it was reintroduced by Brad Sherman in the last congress we had nearly 50 co-sponsors of that bill we have 10 seconds left what I'm saying is Amy there is momentum now to transform this state of war into a permanent peace and that's where we need Americans to recognize this is America's oldest war it's on our responsibility to bring closure to this war Christine on founder and executive director of women cross DMZ a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean war and the co-ordinator of the campaign koreapiecenow that does it for our show on Saturday we'll be speaking at 10am at American University in Washington on an old day conference titled in search of a new U.S. policy for a new Latin America burying 200 years of the Monroe Doctrine checkdemocracynow.org for details I'm Amy Goodman thanks for joining us