Montana House Democrats elect two trans lawmakers to lead them

Montana is not just any state. This is the place where, in April 2023, Zephyr stood on the House floor and told Republicans that those who vote to ban gender-affirming care for trans youth would have "blood on your hands." She said it because it is true, because the evidence on trans youth suicidality and the harm of blocking care is not ambiguous. For saying it, she was barred from speaking. Then, when protesters filled the gallery in solidarity and arrests were made, she was removed from the floor entirely and made to sit in the hallway. The image of a duly elected lawmaker excluded from her own chamber made national headlines and became a symbol of exactly what it looks like when a legislature decides that some people do not belong.

And now Zooey Zephyr is the whip.

What actually happened in the caucus vote

Following a caucus vote, Howell, a trans nonbinary Democrat from Missoula, was elected House minority leader. That is not a symbolic role or a consolation prize: it is the top leadership position in the caucus, the first time a trans person has held that position in any party caucus in any state legislative chamber in the United States. Zephyr, meanwhile, was elected minority whip, the first trans woman to hold that role in any state legislature.

"I am proud to announce that I have been elected as a Whip for the Montana House Democrats! We have an incredible leadership team, and are ready to get to work for Montana! Additionally, we are blessed to have Rep. SJ Howell as minority leader — the first trans/nonbinary party leader in the nation!" Zephyr posted after the vote.

What strikes me reading that is the word "blessed." Not triumphant, not defiant, not combative. Grateful. Ready to work. That is what trans people in public life actually sound like when they are not being told they are a crisis or a controversy.

Both lawmakers are more than their historic firsts

It would be easy to write this story as though Howell and Zephyr exist primarily as symbols, as though their trans identity is the whole of their political identity. It is not, and their colleagues clearly know it.

Howell has spent years deep in health policy. As vice chair of the House Human Services Committee, they have carried bills on Medicaid and child welfare, and they spearheaded Montana's Medicaid expansion renewal. "Continuing our current Medicaid program is the most important job that we have," Howell said at the time. That is bread-and-butter politics: the kind of unglamorous, essential work that keeps people fed, housed, and healthy. Howell has also been a consistent voice against anti-trans legislation, arguing that the "Big Sky state is big enough for everyone," and reportedly helping to kill the majority of bills targeting trans people in the state.

Zephyr's legislative record runs equally wide. She has focused heavily on landlord-tenant policy and worked to clear old unconstitutional provisions out of Montana's statute books. She also played a role in a 2023 fight over a Paris Hilton-backed law guaranteeing children in "troubled teen" programmes unmonitored calls with their parents. That is a piece of work about protecting vulnerable young people that has nothing to do with gender, and everything to do with who Zephyr is as a legislator.

They were elected to lead because they are good at this. The trans part of their identities is real and matters, but it does not explain the vote. Competence, trust, and track record explain the vote.

This is part of a much larger wave

Montana is not an isolated story. It sits inside a broader picture of trans people winning elected office in numbers that would have been almost unimaginable a decade ago. In Alabama, Allison Montgomery became the state's first openly trans lawmaker, defeating a Republican in a Trump-supporting district. In Washington, Jaelynn Scott will become the first out trans member of the state legislature and the first out Black trans woman elected to any state legislature. Trans lawmakers will also take office in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, and elsewhere.

In Congress, Sarah McBride was appointed deputy whip for policy in 2025. Brianna Titone was elected one of two caucus chairs for Colorado House Democrats in 2022. These are not token gestures. They are trans people doing the work of governing, being trusted by their colleagues to hold real responsibilities, and delivering.

The contrast with the political effort to remove trans people from public life could not be sharper. For years, legislatures including Montana's have passed bills designed to restrict where trans people can go, what care trans youth can access, and what rights trans adults can claim. The message, repeated often enough, can start to feel like it is working. Stories like this one are a reminder that it is not. Trans people are not vanishing from American public life. In Montana, they are running it.

What I keep thinking about

When Zephyr was removed from the House floor in 2023, she did not leave. She sat in the hallway. She voted by proxy. She came back the following session. She kept turning up, kept doing the work, kept representing the people who elected her. And now her colleagues have made her their whip.

I do not know what it felt like in that caucus room when the votes were counted. But I do know what it means to have spent years being told your presence is a problem, and then to have the people around you say: actually, we want you to lead. That is not a small thing. For every trans young person watching from a state that is still passing bills to push them out, that moment is evidence. Evidence that the attempts to erase trans people from public life are failing. Evidence that trans people are not going anywhere.

If there is a news story you would like me to cover then just let Sammy know.

Dr Helen Webberley is a Gender Expert and Medical Educator, and the founder of GenderGP. She writes about trans lives, trans healthcare, and the world around them.