Reprinted with permission from Out NW
I first met Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr in September 2024, when she was the featured speaker at the Victory Fund’s “Victory in Pacific Northwest” event in Seattle, long after she rose to national prominence. And while I take no credit for her success and achievements, I was struck how one high school in Bellevue, Washington, helped put two openly Trans women on a trajectory toward leadership in the LGBTQIA+ community.
In 2022, Zephyr became the first openly Transgender woman elected to the Montana legislature, a powerful moment for equality in a state best known for its vast open landscapes and its ranching and mining history. Just a few months later, she made a passionate floor speech against a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors, telling fellow lawmakers that there would be “blood on their hands” if the bill were to pass, due to the potential for an increase in an already too high suicide rate among Transgender youth. While she only aimed to stress the real-life consequences of the work legislators do at the state capitol in Helena, she was censured by Republican lawmakers shortly thereafter for her remarks. She was barred from House floor, gallery, and anterooms for the rest of the session.
Zephyr told Out NW over Zoom earlier this month that the move was “antidemocratic” and an effort to silence her by using “the powers of the speaker[ship] to ignore folks that you just don't want to hear from…
“For me, in that moment, it was about democratic principles at its very core. The speech I gave initially was about Trans people. Everything that followed was about what [happens] when people in power [try] to consolidate and use that power to silence the minority. And that is the hallmark of authoritarianism.”
Zephyr’s bravery is featured in the documentary Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr, directed by Kimberly Reed, which was short-listed for the 2025 Academy Award in the Documentary Short category. Her public profile has led to a busy schedule of media interviews, lectures, and keynote speeches.
Life in Montana
When asked about her newfound fame, Zephyr deflected, as if to brush off the idea entirely. “Your everyday Montanan can smell the BS a mile away. And so can your colleagues in the legislature,” she retorted. “My political [mantra] is that I am as sweet as I am inevitable. I can still be the kind, loving, sweet-hearted person that I am… and also push for the inevitable change. If you lose your genuineness and you lose your gentleness, every action you take is at risk of corroding your own soul. And the soul of a country. And so I choose to lead this way.”
When asked about life as an openly Trans woman in Montana, Zephyr said that Missoula “is no more difficult to live in [than] many places around the world… I mean, to me, living authentically as yourself felt like not a choice. It was that or die. And so you transition, because it’s who you are. And it’s who you need to be to move through the world and live as yourself.
“I think what calls me to be here is, again, that version of Montana that I still hold on to and that I hear from my colleagues — Democrats and some Republicans — who also yearn for a place where we just care for each other and where we don't try to scapegoat and villainize certain communities in pursuit of political power... a community where we take care of each other...
“There will always be people falling short of that goal. There will always be monsters in the dark. In every city, no matter how large, no matter how small, no matter how progressive or conservative. They will be there. And the question is, how do you build enough community to buffer against that? I found that here in Montana.”
Zephyr and Erin Reed, famous for her social media persona “Erin in the Morning,” were drawn together by their mutual online LGBTQ+ advocacy, which resulted in a long-distance relationship. In 2023, the two got engaged at Queer Prom in Missoula. Later, they married in what GO Magazine called a “star-studded celebration,” whose guests included filmmaker Lilly Wachowski of The Matrix trilogy, NCAA champion swimmer Lia Thomas, and Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone. Sarah Kate Ellis, the CEO of GLAAD, officiated, according to the publication.
“We joked shortly before I proposed to her… that ‘girlfriend’ felt like the wrong word… ‘Wife’ very much feels like the right word,” Zephyr stated glowingly. “And it has been an absolute joy. We just got back from our honeymoon in France!”
Legislative effectiveness
Zephyr ran and won her seat for House District 100 in November 2022, and, after redistricting, won her District 95 seat —both serving Missoula — in 2024 by wide margins. Zephyr remains humble, however, continuing to focus on her legislative efforts, including more compelling speeches on the House floor against anti-Trans bills, one targeting drag performances and Pride events, for example. The bill failed after 13 Republicans joined Democrats. A separate anti-Trans bill saw 29 Republicans break ranks to vote with Zephyr, effectively killing the proposed legislation.
“We stopped, I think, about half of the anti-Trans bills,” Zephyr said. “And we were the only state in the country where … half the Republicans were joining [Democrats] to vote some of those down. So that was incredibly successful on that front.”
When asked about her proudest legislative accomplishments, she spoke not about the headline-grabbing stuff but about protecting children in camps for supposed troubled teens. “There was a bill to basically have people go do semiannual or once-quarterly investigations and interviews with the kids at these [troubled teen] camps… I got an amendment to that bill that [mandating that] unmonitored phone lines be put in place at every camp, with emergency contact numbers posted. It was the first piece of legislation I ever got my stamp on back in 2023… We're protecting kids and we're saving lives,” she said proudly.
Seattle influence
Zephyr was born in Billings, Montana, in 1988 but relocated to the Seattle area at the age of 10. She attended Newport High School in Bellevue and went on to earn her bachelor of arts in administration and creative writing from the University of Washington in 2011.
“I was leaving a very idealized version of Montana in my youth,” she said. “And my mother — we were conservative and religious growing up — was warning of Seattle… like, ‘Oh, the big city, be careful. It's going to change you.’”
While she is aware of criticism of the city and the “Seattle freeze,” a perceived difficulty by newcomers to make friends, she sees it as “relentlessly building community,” “consciously cultivated,” and a “space that is always looking to pull people in.” She found this to be true during her formative years and on into college. “[People said,] ‘Hey, are you going to read? We’ve got a book club going on. We’ve got a writing club going on. Oh, we all go down to the waterfront every Saturday,’ she recalled. “Everyone was relentlessly building community.”
Zephyr credits her time in Seattle with helping to shape her perspective and attitudes on a lot of issues, but says she remained a Montanan at heart.
Trans athletes
It was in Bellevue that Zephyr excelled at sports, winning five state wrestling titles. She recently told me that her name still hangs from a banner at Newport High School, adding that her time there contributed to her discipline and competitive spirit. She told The Guardian about a sign in the wrestling room (that I also touched after practice each day, having once been a wrestler at Newport many years earlier): “Every day I leave this room a better wrestler and a better person than when I entered.” She claims that this became a motto she still carries with her today.
“I love talking about Trans sports,” Zephyr said, because of the level of hypocrisy and misinformation in the discussion. “When we talk about Trans athletes in sports, I always pivot to the NCAA and say, okay, you’ve got 500,000 athletes. Trans people are about 1% of the population. That would put you at — quick math — 5,000 Trans athletes, were everything equal. If you’re saying Trans athletes are taking over, you’d expect to see more than that. But you don’t, you see less. And not just a little less. A tenth of that would be 500 — you see less than that. A hundredth would be 50 — you see less than that. When the NCAA head was interviewed, he said there were less than 10 Trans athletes in the NCAA…
“Let's say you’re someone who is concerned about Trans athletes and you’re rabble-rousing, saying, you know, ‘They’re letting men take over women’s sports,’ rabble, rabble. And I say something like, ‘Okay, well, what about someone who transitioned before puberty? What about them?’ It’s like, ‘Well, I don’t see how that would be a problem.’ It’s like, ‘Well, you're banning that too.’
“What about a nonathletic sport like chess? They’re banning that too [for Trans people]. They’re banning [Trans people in] fishing. How do you have those conversations? And I think you can peel away at the hypocrisy a little bit.”
Zephyr warns Democrats away from falling into a trap by backing away from Trans inclusion in sports. “[If those on] the right are in a fervor about something so clear in its lack of evidence, what happens when it comes to healthcare? If it were about fairness, why wouldn’t they want a Trans youth to transition at 13 and [then] say, ‘Okay, if you've transitioned before middle puberty, then you can go play on the women's volleyball team or basketball team.’ It’s never really about that,” she said emphatically.
“And I think we’re starting to see that … the escalation of the Trump administration [has] made those conversations easier. But, I always say, when you see this fracture point, that is the space to walk toward, because the fracture point is revealing about how much the argument on the right falls apart when it has any scrutiny placed upon it.”
Gaming
Zephyr also excelled in competitive gaming back in her college years. According to LGBTQ Nation, she was a top-ranking competitive tournament fighter in Super Smash Bros., and according to her Wikipedia page, she placed in the top eight at the Northwest Majors IV event in Des Moines, Washington, in May 2014. She mained Ness in Brawl and in Project M. Then, in newer games, she mains Young Link primarily. In 64, it was Ness and Captain Falcon, she revealed.
“Yes, I am a big gamer,” Zephyr said. “These days, I play Stardew Valley with my son and Sea of Thieves. And… I’ve played old school RuneScape for… 24 years at this point. But back in the day, in my college days, I was a competitive Super Smash Bros. player. I traveled the state to play Brawl at the time. And then ultimately Project M. And even traveled… a little bit to other states to play and compete.”
She also likes to escape the world of politics for more imaginative play in Dungeons & Dragons on a weekly basis, often alongside her wife. “It is an absolute blast,” she exclaimed.
Hope in dark times
Zephyr credits her family and young son, now 10, for replenishing her strength and giving her reason to fight for the people of Montana and the LGBTQ+ community, both locally and beyond. She sees the despair, especially among Transgender Americans, and draws inspiration not only from Queer liberation movements of the past but what she sees unfolding around her.
“It's hard,” she said. “You know, I don't think there’s a magic word you can say, given where we’re at, that will suddenly let people know that just around the corner is something beautiful. Our community… came together to care for [its] dying members … when the government… pretended we weren’t there. You look at how much internal care had to happen there, how much rage outward has to exist. And I certainly believe there is a place for that rage, thinking of the ACT UP movement and such.
“I think of someone like [Emily] Dickinson, [who said,] ‘Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, sings the song without the words, and never stops at all.’ Hope just never stops. And I think when you go back to art, and you see Queer artists [in particular], and you read their words, and you see their struggles, you see embedded with those struggles joy — deep, profound joy — that can take root anywhere.”
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