Zooey Zephyr and Erin Reed are spreading hope to fellow transgender people
"I feel like it makes us as a generation feel represented when we have people like her in power and up there giving very inspirational, motivational words of wisdom," says Scarborough, 20.
Zephyr and Reed, both 34, have emerged as a vanguard, a couple spreading hope to fellow transgender people amid a year in which hundreds of bills were proposed or passed that restrict their rights in health care and other realms. Their appearances at Pride events this month throughout the country replicate scenes like the one in Missoula.
Largely unknown just a few months ago, the two women now rate among the most prominent figures in the world of LGBTQ+ advocacy. They've appeared at dozens of events, including the GLAAD Media Awards in New York City in May. People lined up to meet them after they spoke in Florida, Ohio and Los Angeles, and even recognized them during their recent trip to Glacier National Park. Documentary film crews follow them around. They recently rubbed elbows at a bar in the nation's capital with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, during Pride festivities.
Zephyr, a Democrat, surged into the spotlight this spring when she was silenced by her Republican colleagues in the Montana Legislature after she refused to apologize for saying some lawmakers would have blood on their hands for supporting a ban on gender-affirming health care for trans youths.
Reed watched it all unfold from her home in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where she has cemented herself as one of the nation's leading independent researchers monitoring the torrent of anti-LGBTQ+ bills.
Now, the recently engaged couple make a formidable duo, using their platform to push back against legislation and inspire their community to continue fighting.
"The question I've been asked a thousand, thousand times is, 'Are you OK? How are you holding up?'" Zephyr said at Missoula Pride in June. "I can say honestly with all my heart, I have a lightness in the work and a joy and hope that I have not felt in a long time."
Zephyr adds that she has "seen the response in individuals coming up to me in the quiet corners of the Capitol, saying, 'We see you, we know what's happening, this isn't right, we have to stay quiet, but this isn't right.'"
Zephyr plans to run for reelection to the Montana House and says she is "willing to explore" the possibility of holding other public offices in the future. Some supporters have pitched her running for Congress to represent western Montana, and while she hasn't ruled it out, Zephyr says, her immediate focus is finding "rooms that my voice can do good in."