After her plane touched down at the airport on election night, Zooey Zephyr was struck by the significance of all she had accomplished.
A group of her supporters and she turned their phones back on to see that Zephyr, an openly gay woman from Montana, had won the 100th district of Montana’s state house.
She hollered, huffed and hugged her group. A flight attendant approached her to ask what was all the fuss about.
“I’m going to be the first trans woman to hold public office in Montana,”Zephyr spoke to the woman and she began to weep. And in that moment, Zephyr realized everything she had endured on her way to becoming her true self had been worth every second.
“My son is trans,”The flight attendant replied. The flight attendant then began to describe how difficult it was for her child feel accepted.
“She just starts crying, and then I start crying,”Zephyr was featured in Inside Edition Digital “Can I hug you?”The woman asked. “And she started telling me about what it was like having a trans son in America today.”
They shared small snippets of their hearts as they sat at the back of the plane.
“She showed me photos of her son,”A snap taken in Paris by the two of them. They exchanged numbers. Zephyr posted a selfie of them on Twitter.
The mom “began to tell me about all the joys/fears that had come with his transition. How much happier and healthier he is now. I got to see pictures of her & her son in Paris, the two of them beaming with joy,”Zephyr posted on the social media platform.
“She also talked about how scary the world was, but how this moment gave her hope. Then we took a selfie & cried,”The representative-elect stated.
Zephyr, 33, is a longtime activist for LGBTQ rights, and works for the University of Montana. She was openly gay four years ago, and she is now making Montana history with SJ Howell who is the first nonbinary member to be elected to the state House.
There was more for the LGBTQ community to celebrate. The 2022 midterm elections also made U.S. history with the greatest number of races won by community members across the country.
At least 340 candidates were victorious, beating the prior record of 336 in 2020.
The U.S. elected its first openly lesbian governors — Tina Kotek in Oregon and Maura Healey in Massachusetts. Erick Russell became the first Black LGBTQ person elected to Connecticut office. James Roesener in New Hampshire became the first trans man elected to a state legislature.
In a critical contest where the GOP’s “red wave” didn’t happen, LGTBQ candidates rode a “rainbow wave”Then it crashed. “lavender ceiling,” advocates said.
“There are two things that come to mind,”Zephyr spoke out about the poll results. “LGTBQ people, trans people, we are loved and accepted by our communities. We’re never far away from someone who loves us dearly. The conservative attempt to focus so heavily on us backfired,”She said.
There were many attempts to discredit her home state, including Montana officials declaring that transgender people cannot change the sex on their birth certificates and banning transgender athletes competing in women’s college sports.
Both efforts were stopped by judicial orders.
“It’s a losing strategy to attack people who are loved by their communities,”Zephyr. “We’re your family, your neighbors, your colleagues. Even 30,000 feet in the air, you’re never far from someone who cares about us.”