Montana
Zooey Zephyr’s Defense of Trans Lives in a Deep-Red State
Early last year, on a slushy predawn morning, I drove to the Montana state capitol building, in Helena, to see the legislature in action. The body is made up of a hundred and fifty “citizen legislators” who meet for no more than ninety days every other year, a schedule designed to accommodate their other, full-time jobs. The session has been described to me as a gathering of friends—there are only a million or so people in the state—or at least it felt that way, for a time. What I witnessed on the floor of the House of Representatives, against the literal backdrop of an enormous settlers-meet-Indians mural, was considerably more tense.
I had come to report on battles over L.G.B.T.Q.-oriented books in a local library system—a small front in the culture wars spreading across the state and the country. Montana’s bicameral Republican super-majority was pushing bills that criminalized the distribution of “obscene materials” by public-school employees, prohibited drag shows in public libraries and schools, and exempted public-school students from having to call classmates by their preferred names or pronouns. Another bill sought to bar medical providers from treating trans minors with hormones or gender-affirming surgeries, which some Republicans referred to as “amputation.” “I wouldn’t call that health care,” the House speaker, Matt Regier, whose sister and father were also members of the legislature, told me in an interview at the time. At the start of the session, the Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, had preëmptively requested 2.6 million dollars to cover the expected cost of defending the state against lawsuits by civil-liberties groups.
The day I visited, legislators were debating the names-and-pronouns bill. Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat and a trans woman representing Missoula, and one of two trans or nonbinary members of the House, called it “inherently discriminatory” and tantamount to bullying. In the following weeks, she continued to speak during floor debate, rising from her seat, No. 31, with increasing fervor. When, in April, the legislature took up Senate Bill 99, the one concerning medical care for trans minors, Zephyr said to its proponents, “If you vote yes on this bill, and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there’s an invocation, when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands.” She quickly became a national symbol of L.G.B.T.Q. resistance.
Regier responded by refusing to give her the floor unless she apologized. Protesters showed up a few days later to yell “Let her speak”; seven were arrested. House members then voted to bar Zephyr from the chamber for the remainder of the legislative session. As the New Yorker contributor Abe Streep wrote, it was “the latest in a string of incidents involving Republican-controlled legislatures muzzling elected Democratic colleagues. In Tennessee, legislators expelled Black representatives speaking about gun control; in Nebraska, a Democrat who testified against a bill similar to S.B. 99, and who has a transgender child, was investigated for having a conflict of interest.”
Zephyr’s journey through the final weeks of the 2023 legislative session is the subject of “Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr,” a short documentary by Kimberly Reed, herself a trans woman from Montana. I first encountered Reed through her feature-length film “Dark Money” (released after a book of the same title by my colleague Jane Mayer), which examines the impact of the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. F.E.C. on campaign finance, journalism, and public accountability in Montana. More recently, Reed directed an episode of the miniseries “Equal” (now on Max) that’s in part about the trans Montanan Jack Starr, who, between the nineteen-twenties and forties, was repeatedly arrested for dressing as a dapper frontiersman. In Zephyr, Reed identified a similarly courageous figure. “It was clear Montana was turning redder, Trumpier, scarier,” Reed told me. “The political backslapping, the ‘aw, shucks,’ still-have-drinks-at-the-end-of-the-day thing was really eroding.”
As a matter of politics, “Seat 31” tells a gloomy tale: S.B. 99 gets passed, and Zephyr is forced to finish out the session from a bench next to the tiny statehouse snack bar. Yet Reed’s character study manages to show Zephyr’s sense of humor—and faith in the eventual triumph of Montanans’ live-and-let-live attitude. When Zephyr is relegated to the bench, she jokes, “Finally, transparency in government! Open doors!” When the session concludes, she clears out the seat she was barred from and chats cordially with a few fellow-legislators. A sweet, personal moment arrives soon afterward, when Zephyr and her long-distance girlfriend, the trans journalist Erin Reed, take the stage at Missoula’s Queer Prom.
Zephyr is running for reëlection this fall, as is the Democrat SJ Howell, who represents a neighboring district in Missoula and identifies as trans and nonbinary. The two are minorities within a super-minority—but they’ll likely be back at the statehouse in 2025. ♦
KALISPELL, Mont. — Country music star Walker Hayes will headline the 2026 Northwest Montana Fair concert, opening the Northwest Montana Fair & Rodeo in Kalispell.
Hayes is scheduled to perform Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026, at the Flathead County Fairgrounds. The 2026 Northwest Montana Fair & Rodeo runs Aug. 12-16.
Hayes is known for hit songs including “Fancy Like,” “AA,” and “You Broke Up With Me.”
“We are thrilled to bring Walker Hayes to the Northwest Montana Fair,” said Sam Nunnally, Manager of the NW Montana Fair & Rodeo. “Our goal each year is to create unforgettable experiences for our community and visitors, and this concert will be a highlight of the 2026 Fair.”
Tickets for the Walker Hayes concert will be available through the Northwest Montana Fair website at nwmtfair.com.
The Northwest Montana Fair & Rodeo welcomes more than 80,000 guests annually and is one of the largest summer events in the region, featuring concerts, PRCA ProRodeo action, carnival rides, exhibits, food vendors, and family entertainment.
BOZEMAN — Aaron Flint and Al Olszewski, Republican candidates for Montana’s Western District U.S. House race, squared off Tuesday in their party’s only scheduled debate before the party primary.
The two debated for about 90 minutes at Bozeman’s Calvary Chapel before an audience of about 120 people. Bozeman anchors Gallatin County, which is second in Republican votes only to Flathead County within the 18-county district.
Natural resource jobs, affordable housing and U.S. military attacks on Iran dominated the discussion. Each question drew 12 minutes of response. Both men called for an end to stock trading by members of Congress, and for federal budgets to be passed on time through regular procedures.
The Montana GOP sponsored the debate. Candidate Christi Jacobsen, Montana’s secretary of state, was unable to attend, according to state Republican Party Chair Art Wittich. State Senate President Matt Regier moderated.
Among the highlights: Flint mentioned no fewer than eight times that he is endorsed by President Donald Trump. Olszewski mentioned Trump by name only a couple of times.
Never too far from Flint’s talking points were “far-left socialists,” whom he credited for “gerrymandering” the Western House District (which has delivered comfortable wins for Republicans since first appearing on the ballot in 2022). The 2026 election cycle was the target of Democrats on the state’s districting commission, Flint said. (Both Democrats on the commission that drew the district in 2021 voted against its current configuration.)
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The near faux pas of the night came during Olszewski’s discussion of good-paying jobs in trades and natural resources: “Trades jobs, natural resource jobs, you know, high-dollar, white-collar jobs, our remote workers who have moved into Montana, and we’ve adapted an economy around them. You know, these are the people, and those are the jobs that will bring our kids home, those high-paying white-collar jobs, or a good natural resource job in western Montana, in one of those mines, or, you know, you know, a sawyer or a hooker” — big pause — “as in timber, not the other way around.”
The line that didn’t land: Flint tried and failed to get audience applause for the 2024 defeat of Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester by Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy — an unseating Flint campaigned for.
“How many of you out there are so glad that we finally got rid of the flip-flop, flat-top liberal senator, Jon Tester? How many of you are so glad we finally did that?”
After a silence, Flint explained to people watching the debate on Facebook that the audience was just being polite.
“They’re waving because we can’t have disruptions. See, they’re good rule followers here in the Republican Party,” Flint said.
Asked how to alleviate Montana’s housing affordability crisis:
Olszewski: “The only way you can afford an expensive house is you’ve got to have a job that pays good money. Tourist jobs provide rent and roommates. Trades jobs, natural resource jobs, high‑dollar white‑collar jobs … those are the jobs that will bring our kids home.” Dr. Al, as Olszewski is widely known, said Wall Street investment buyers are distorting housing prices and the federal government has weakened the dollar.
Flint: “Thirty percent of the cost of a home is all due to red tape and regulations … It costs $100,000 to build a home before you even put a hole in the ground.”
Flint said reviving Montana’s timber industry would lower home values and added, “I support President Trump’s ban on these big Wall Street firms buying single-family homes. I think that’s something that we’ve got to get across the finish line.”
“We can deliver when it comes to making the Montana dream affordable again by delivering affordable housing. But another piece is promoting trades and trades education to build up our workforce.”
Asked how Congress should respond to the Iran conflict:
Olszewski: “I supported our president with what happened in Venezuela. There’s a $25 million bounty on basically someone that was killing our people through drugs, right? I’m not so happy with what’s going on in the Iran war. I’m not a warrior. I’m a physician from the military that fixed military people … What my perspective is, is that countries can win wars, but people do not. They don’t come back.” Olszewski said Congress will have to decide whether to authorize further use of military force and set terms in about 10 days.
Flint: “Let me just say this. We are sick and tired of these forever wars, and we do not want to see a long-term boots-on-the-ground Iraq-style nation-building exercise, and I think President Trump shares that mission as well. Let me also say this about Iran. First off, [former Venezuelan President Nicolás] Maduro is behind bars. [Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei is dead, but the far-left socialists are on the march in Montana.”
Asked about reforming Congress:
Olszewski: “What our congressmen and congresswomen have to understand is that if you’re in the House, the House belongs to the people, and they need to, first and foremost, represent you, not themselves, not special interests. It’s not about sound-bites. It’s about actually getting work done and governing.” Olszewski said the House needs to pass a budget based on 12 agency appropriations bills before the end of each federal fiscal year, a process known as “regular order.”
Flint: “We need to return to regular order and get single-subject bills and get these appropriations bills done one by one. If they can’t get a budget done, they shouldn’t get paid. And we need a ban on congressional stock trading. Because I think part of the reason why the American people are so frustrated with Congress right now is because … they believe that Congress is so useless, because we’ve got some of these politicians back there that are getting rich off the backs of taxpayers.”
Neither candidate offered a plan for cutting taxes, once a staple of Republican platforms. Both supported reductions in federal spending without identifying particular cuts.
Voting in Montana’s 2026 primary election begins May 4 and ends June 2.
POLSON, Mont. — Two motorcyclists crashed on Highway 35 near Polson after failing to negotiate a left-hand curve, leaving one man dead and another hospitalized, according to the Montana Highway Patrol.
Two motorcycles were traveling southbound on Highway 35 when both drifted into a guardrail. Both drivers were separated from their motorcycles and ended up on the other side of the guardrail.
A 58-year-old Polson man was confirmed dead at the scene. The second driver, a 45-year-old man, also from Polson, was taken to the hospital with injuries.
Alcohol is a suspected factor in the crash, according to the Montana Highway Patrol.
The crash is under investigation.
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