EPISODE 52: Montana State Rep. Zooey Zephyr and Dani Hess
Vince Pagán-Hill: Welcome to another episode of “Gathering Ground”! I'm Vince Pagán-Hill, producer for the podcast and operations and media strategy director at Morten Group, filling in for Mary today to introduce this special episode, which is a part of our “Blueprint for Belonging” series.
If you follow us on LinkedIn, you may recognize me from the first videos in the series highlighting our recent work supporting the creation of an Equity and Inclusion Plan in Bozeman, Montana. This was our first-ever equity planning project with a municipality, and I was lucky enough to lead Morten Group’s efforts, along with my colleagues Jessica Kadish-Hernández, Lisa Gilmore and, of course, Mary.
But before I give you more information on that series and provide an update on the plan’s progress, let’s dive into the episode.
Joining Mary for this conversation were two people instrumental in moving Montana’s equity work forward.
State Representative Zoey Zephyr, Montana’s first openly transgender legislator, shares her impassioned fight for equity, including being silenced on the House floor while advocating for LGBTQ+ youth.
Joining Representative Zephyr is Dani Hess, who at the time was the community engagement coordinator for the city of Bozeman. She co-led the city's Belonging in Bozeman initiative and was someone I had the great pleasure of working closely with during our year-and-a-half-long collaboration.
Get ready for a conversation packed with personal insights, community engagement triumphs, and inspiring leadership in the face of adversity.
Mary Morten: Thank you so much for joining us today.
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: Thanks so much for having us.
Dani Hess: Yeah. Super excited to be here with you all.
Mary Morten: So, just by way of background, Morten Group, right, my consulting group, we have been working in the Pacific Northwest since 2016 and specifically in Bozeman for the last two years, and so we’ve been working with Dani on the Equity and Inclusion Plan for the City of Bozeman, and we’re going to hear all about that.
And we really want to talk to you, Rep. Zephyr, about your experiences, and we’d love to end with a call to action, right? We just don’t want to talk about what’s happened but we also want to talk about what we should all be doing so that we can address certainly some of the challenges that all of us, or many of us, certainly, are facing, particularly if you’re part of the LGBTQ community, particularly if you’re part of the trans community. So with that, I want to start with you, Rep. Zephyr, and say, what inspired you to even run in Montana, knowing that it would certainly not be easy?
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: You know, in 2020 I was doing a lot of human rights activism work on the ground and a lot of times activism is – it feels like you’re addressing the wounds left by government, or created by government. Sometimes those wounds are intentional. You have groups of people who are crafting policies that get communities harmed. And other times it is, you know, government is inherently imperfect and you need to help people who fall through the cracks of policy. And in 2020 it felt like the wounds were coming too quickly. You had COVID. You had the George Floyd protests. You had the rise of anti-abortion policy, the resurgence of anti-LGBTQ policy. And it felt like there was so much harm coming so quickly that I went to my government and lobbied, and I said, listen, you’re hurting our people; our people are suffering. And I was met with individuals who didn’t seem to care. And following that, I watched bills passed by one vote and I said, you know what? If we’re going to ever move the needle we need people in those rooms who have the lived experiences necessary to talk about these issues. And so I ran and was blessed to be elected.
Mary Morten: And we’re going to come back to some of those details, but that really gives us an understanding of what led you into the legislature.
I want to just come to you, Dani, for a moment, and tell us a little bit about your role and your work in the city of Bozeman as the community engagement coordinator and how you see your role in terms of moving equity and inclusion forward. It’s a huge job, yet one that I’ve had a chance to, you know, work with you on, as well as Vince Pagán-Hill, with whom you’ve worked most closely. You’ve been really just excited and energized by it and I think that’s contagious. What’s been your impetus for doing this work?
Dani Hess: Oh, thanks for that reflection, Mary. It’s a good reminder that, you know, people still see the spark in me despite me some days – (laughs) – feeling like it’s dwindling. But that spark, I think, has lived in me for a long time and I came to local government five or so years ago. I’ve been at the city for three and a half years wearing all sorts of hats, but fancy myself someone who, like, really loves trying to understand systems and how systems impact community and the collective and how systems impact individuals, right, based on who we are and our identities and our characteristics. So with that systemic understanding, my role in a lot of my work has been to find, like, ways to thoughtfully disrupt those systems, especially when they’re, you know, resulting in harmful outcomes. And so back in 2020 I started what, like, the first week of full remote work at the city of Bozeman in early April 2020 and the opportunity came up to get involved in some of the commitments we were making around equity and inclusion, as a lot of local governments were making those sort of commitments in the summer of 2020. I was, yeah, presented with this opportunity to take more of a leadership role in moving some of those commitments forward. So I’ve been doing that since then and really love working within the system to, again, like, disrupt it in thoughtful ways, and there are scrappy people in local government who are working to make that good change from the inside, so I’m working with a good team of folks to move these changes forward.
Mary Morten: And has it progressed as you imagined when you thought about, OK, we’re going to embark upon this journey to get an equity and inclusion plan for the city of Bozeman?
Dani Hess: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s hard to imagine how things will unfold. I’m a big believer in, like, the process, right, and having a shared vision of the outcome that we’re trying to achieve but letting the process unfold and being really intentional about how we move towards those outcomes in a shared process. I don’t have too high of expectations of local government, right? Like, I’m very grounded in the reality that we move slowly, and sometimes we move slowly in the wrong direction and we need to just keep course correcting in the right direction. So there are a lot of efforts like sort of in parallel that are happening at the city of Bozeman around equity and inclusion and I think we’ve really nailed it in some respects and we need to keep trying to stay the course and reach that shared outcome in other efforts. But I think with the Belonging in Bozeman plan we’re on the right track and we are really close to putting forward a super-solid plan that was crafted really by and for the community. So I’m excited to keep that moving forward.
Mary Morten: So, Rep. Zephyr, when you think back about your journey to the legislature, what are the – I would say the points of light that really said, this makes sense, I should be doing it, I am moving in the right direction? You know, things changed once you got to the legislature, and we’ll talk about that, but what kept you going? Because this is not, you know, an easy feat. And when I read, you know, that you had won, I was just so excited and I thought, this gives me hope.
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: So for me, when you’re running for office or when you’re deciding where to go, there’s sort of three things you need: You need to know, first off, is this the room that your voice can do good in? And that was a conversation I had with my senator at the time, Senator Bryce Bennett, and he said, not only can you do good in this room; it’s the place your voice can do the most good in this moment. And so you need that. The second thing is you need a swath of policy that you care about and want to advocate for. And we talk about the lenses we bring to the legislature and our role and, you know, being a renter, being someone who depends on health care for my quality of life, being a union worker in the public employees union, MFPE, being queer in the state of Montana. You know, those lenses are all policy things that you bring. And then the third and important step is you need – you know, Dani talked about, you know, the spark. To me I always say there has to be an inextinguishable fire somewhere in you. And for me that was watching the state not listen to the communities most impacted by legislation, and that fire keeps you going through successes and hardships. You know, it helps you advocate for strong policies. And when you watch public education getting attacked in the state of Montana or every tax relief bill coming through not touching renters whatsoever, you know that you have to be there to fight for that, and that willingness to fight for that, that’s the fire that keeps you going.
Mary Morten: So can we talk a little bit about the experiences that you had while the legislature was in session and you were silenced? I felt, certainly from where we were and everyone we talked to, when we were in and out of Bozeman, there was a lot of support for you, and I’m wondering if you felt that as well.
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: Yes. I felt that support nationally. I felt that support locally. And interestingly, there might be a perception that, oh, it was, you know, Zooey’s from Missoula, this very progressive town in the state of Montana, and of course, all the lefties are out there to have her back. But I saw a broad swath of support from across the political spectrum. Shortly after the legislature, I went to Glacier National Park with my fiancé and it was her first time at the park, and as happens when it’s someone’s first time in Glacier, you take every pull-off because it’s the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen, and we were on one pull-off and this big F-250 comes up behind us and out hops this guy and he’s got cowboy boots and the Wranglers and the plaid – like the whole getup. And he comes up and he points to me and he goes, “Zooey Zephyr.” Right? The first words he said to me. And I was like, “Oh, hello,” 200 miles from anything. And he goes, “I’m a Republican.” I was like, “OK, I gathered.” Context clues. Like, I picked up the whole sitch. And he goes, “But I’m not like them.” He’s like, “I’m more John McCain and other moderate Republicans.” And he listed all of these folks. And he goes: “But I need you to know you’re my hero. I sat on that bench for you.” And he and I had a 15-minute conversation about what’s happened to the Republican Party in Montana, what he valued in his legislature and legislators, and really seeing that people across the political spectrum understood that yes, Zooey stood up on a particular policy for LGBTQ people, for trans youth specifically, but when the Republicans began silencing me and not allowing me to speak on any bills, we’re really seeing that we’re targeting fundamental principles of this country, and people across political spectrums understood that in a way that was reaffirming.
Mary Morten: That is a wonderful story and really just really underscores my hopefulness. That’s really wonderful to hear.
I’m curious to ask both of you about how you imagine bridging the gaps and resources and supports for underrepresented communities, especially those in the rural and remote areas of Montana. And I know the questions and ideas that have come up with regard to writing the plan, Dani, but would love to hear from both of you about, what do you think or how do you imagine bridging some of those gaps and resources that impact the entire state but in particular area?
Dani Hess: Yeah, I can start off just from our work here in Bozeman. I think that gap is really best bridged by the people who are closest to the issues that they’re confronting in their day-to-day lives. So like Zooey mentioned, right, we need to hear directly from those communities who are most impacted by policies, and I think that’s the approach that we’ve taken in developing this plan and in all of the community engagement work that we do in local government, especially at the city of Bozeman. So I think we’ve seen a lot of organization and mobilization of younger folks and renters in Bozeman and that has come about in more recent months, I think, just because we’re reaching sort of the tipping point here in our housing crisis and in, you know, the needs of renters not being reflected at the decision-making table and at the policy-making table. So we’ve taken that philosophy of bringing the voices most impacted into developing the plan and hired three new staff positions for the development of the plan to do exactly that, right, like, bring their communities into the process of developing the goals and the recommendations and the actions needed to bridge those gaps. So yeah, I’m really proud to support those three staff in bringing the voices of the queer community, of the disability community, of the Spanish-speaking community into conversations in local government where they really haven’t been heard.
Mary Morten: And these are the community liaisons you’re referring to?
Dani Hess: Yeah. Yeah. These are those three community liaisons that we hired for the development of the plan.
Mary Morten: Wonderful.
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: To echo some of what Dani was saying, you know, you look at a landlord/tenant act in the state of Montana that’s originally from 1977 and nearing 50 years old and you imagine the ways in which the housing landscape has changed in the last 50 years, and, you know, we had a policy come forward in the legislature and at one point someone asked every landlord in the legislature to stand up and it was over half of the legislators. And you look at the way, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that slowly tips the scales in the favor of landlords. It’s important to make sure, as we craft a general landlord/tenant policy, that we are doing so in a way where tenants have a seat at the table to help craft that policy because they are largely impacted financially there. They’re sort of under the most financial stress there. And then also thinking broadly about – you know, you talk about how do you help rural communities particularly, and there are two ways I see it. First is you have to have your safeguards. You know, are you funding public education? Are you protecting the judiciary? Are you doing the kinds of actions that at a state legislative level you are ensuring that the systems that people need they have access to, regardless of wealth, regardless of status. And then the second thing is how do you utilize your larger cities to help buffer the needs of smaller communities. You know, you look at the way in which Missoula began hosting a queer prom to help bring up LGBTQ youth from the Bitterroot Valley where maybe they didn’t have the level of support where they felt (being ?) out and themselves. That creates a system there. I’ve talked with folks in Missoula and a couple in Bozeman about potentially the creation of a human rights system navigator, which helps the people of Bozeman but then also frees up statewide funds for people in other areas of the state of Montana can utilize the resources that otherwise would have been occupied. Those are sort of two of the paths that I see to help bridge the gap of needs rurally and throughout Montana.
Mary Morten: Wonderful.
Dani, can you talk a little bit about the Equity Indicators Project, just recalling that it highlighted specific gaps within the community and wondering if these findings influencing policy decisions and legislative actions have really had an impact to support marginalized groups? And if they haven’t, how do you see that potentially being addressed – (inaudible) – plan?
Dani Hess: Yeah, I think – I want to go back to the example that I shared with, you know, tenants and young people organizing in Bozeman. Our Equity Indicators Project – I think one thing that it did really well is shine the light on the fact that, you know, the biggest community issues in Bozeman are different depending on who you ask, right, and young people in Bozeman, specifically folks under – let’s see, folks under the age of 25 make up just over 40 percent, about 43 percent, of our whole population. We’re a young city, right? We’ve got a lot of folks under 25. And we haven’t seen those folks represented in community engagement or in those conversations in local government before. Now we are, and I’m not attributing that organization to the equity indicators per se, but I think the equity indicators help decision makers really listen and understand and underline the importance of the issues that young folks are bringing to decision makers at this time, right? When we did that equity indicators project we heard from that age group, folks under 25, so 18 to 25. They rated housing and, like, housing stability and security higher than any other age group who participated in that project. So I think, yeah, it really underscores the efforts that are being made now to decision makers, right, like decision makers like to have data, they like to have, you know, community voices help shape their decisions, and this sort of supports them in doing that. And the other thing I think I’ll add is – so I think city commission is listening now, and in a big way that’s supported by the data from the Equity Indicators Project that really emphasized housing and that really emphasized mental health and sort of community support services and supporting those organizations that provide those basic needs and those services that people rated as high priorities in the city of Bozeman. And in the last two years the city has funded at a higher level these community grants that are targeted to those service provider organizations, so the organizations providing emergency and transitional housing have been funded at a higher level these past two years, as well as mental health efforts and organizations in the community. So I think decision makers are listening and that data is an essential part of helping support their decision making.
Mary Morten: You know, it’s really fascinating that those are some of the same issues that I would say have been raised in Chicago, in a very urban city, for young folks, right – being unhoused, needing mental health. It’s just the same, it seems like, across the continuum for queer youth and, you know, particularly, in some cases, even more so for trans youth. And I’m curious, Rep. Zephyr, in terms of the work that you’ve been doing – well, what does one do, right – the legislature, of course, is on recess, and what do you engage with during this time that is not impacted by whatever happened when the legislature was in session? What are some of the other ways that you are continuing to not only receive support but to provide support, to provide your voice, which is a very important one, you know, in uplifting these issues?
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: Yeah, so you’re doing a handful of things, but first off is, I am on an interim committee, the Legislative Consumer Council Oversight Committee, where the council folks, they’re the people who push back against the PSC. We’re listening to them and hearing about what’s going on with the rate cases and whatnot. So there’s that work. You are meeting with constituents, you are talking policy for 2025, which is the next time the Montana legislature will go back into session, and trying to figure out what kind of policies you want to craft, working with groups across the country who have crafted policy. You know, what was successful in Colorado? What was successful in New Mexico or Arizona or Michigan? How do you listen to the folks who have pushed and passed legislation and try to build up good examples for the state of Montana? And then also you’re advocating across the state so that people understand. You know, when you say, hey, there was a housing crisis this session and the speaker of the House, after the censure, spiked his own housing bill, a bipartisan housing bill that had been worked on – said, I thought this was a good idea but after today I don’t know. How do you get people to understand that Republicans did not adequately address the housing crisis? How do you get people to see the property tax situation and say, listen, Democrats were the ones who brought a circuit breaker to the table, brought progressive policy to the table, and fight so that when we go into the 2025 session there will not be a supermajority where there was, and that rather than seeing 50 constitutional amendments get proposed and a slate of anti-LGBTQ policy, maybe instead we can actually do some work to help the people of Montana. That’s sort of the dual fight there, and then obviously the other stuff I’m doing around traveling the country and trying to build coalition with people across the country. That is also part of the work as well.
Mary Morten: Absolutely. And when you think about the experiences you’ve had and how it will impact how you move forward, when the legislature does come back in session, what are some of the lessons learned from that experience in the past session?
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: You know, I think what you learn from a session, first off, is what it takes to carry policy. You know, you come into a first session and you haven’t done something where you’re debating 12 bills a day, and there’s another 30 on the floor that you only heard about for the first time 24 hours ago. The pace of the legislature takes a few weeks to get used to, and so I think going into a second term you’re more ready to come with a slate of legislation right off the get-go and hit the ground running. I also think you learn about how to navigate a legislature that maybe does not want to hear legislation or pushes back against certain topics. And you also – I think you find – like, I have been blessed to have been invited into a variety of conversations that I had not been a part of prior to being a legislator and prior to sort of national awareness, and for me, the question is, how do you make use of those conversations to do good for the state? I talked about – you know, I’m meeting this Friday with the German Embassy and talking with them about housing policy in Germany and LGBTQ policy in Germany and getting an understanding of, whether it’s state to state or country to country, what are we doing, what is working, and can we model good policy off that? I think between that and learning from the first session, it gives you an opportunity to hit the ground running and hopefully bring the kind of policy in a legislature that is not as tilted as this one was, gives us a chance to do some real good.
Mary Morten: Wonderful.
Well, in thinking about that, Dani, what do you hope will come forward – what do you hope to see as the plan is wrapped up and implementation needs to start? How will you sort of help, along with your co-chair, shepherd that process through? Or will there be sort of a re-setting, if you will, as implementation starts?
Dani Hess: Yeah. I mean, I think what we hope to do with this plan is just develop a list and a road map for partners and staff to work the plan, right? We want to make this easy to implement, clear to implement. It’s not going to be easy. (Laughs.) Let me clarify that, right? Like, there are some pretty transformational changes suggested in this document. But we’ve developed a really solid list of recommendations and goals that I think walk that line between aspirational and achievable, and I think it’s up to our local leaders and city officials to give this thing the thumbs up and devote the resources that are needed to implement it. So that’s what’s next for us is to wrap this thing up and package it in a way that makes it easy for our city commission and mayor to adopt and support the implementation of, right off the bat.
Mary Morten: And how do you see the role of community partners continuing, right? There’s been a lot of work done to bring in folks across the political spectrum who have different ideas about many of the topics that are in the plan. How do you see the role, yeah, of community partners continuing so that they feel that, you know, we came in, we absolutely, you know, participated in focus groups and surveys and things of that nature; now, you know, the plan is completed; how will they continue to understand and experience the impact of the plan?
Dani Hess: Yeah. I mean, I think this is a different plan from a lot of the plans that we do in local government in that implementation relies pretty heavily on those community partners, right? Like, we asked the community what the most pressing issues were and we heard loud and clear that it was housing; that is something that is certainly within local government’s responsibility and wheelhouse to address head-on. But the topics like, you know, health care also floated to the top of that list. And the city does not have direct control over some of those recommendations and goals in the health care section so we really are looking to the folks who showed up for the development of the plan, those representatives from – our partners in health care to rally support within their organizations and among their leadership to pick up and run with those recommendations. And we’re really lucky, I think, to have a lot of those existing relationships and partnerships that allow us to collaborate in the development of plans like this, and we’re hoping to see those relationships and that collaboration carry forward into implementation. But it is going to take resources and, you know, commitment from leadership from those organizations outside city hall to move these things forward. But the city’s committed to – you know, we are really well suited to be that convener and to continue to bring folks to the table who have been a part of the steering committee, right, and developing the goals and recommendations, to keep convening that group and checking in about progress and talking about ways that we can share resources when it works to move this stuff forward.
Mary Morten: I’m just curious: Do you think what happened in the legislative session with Rep. Zephyr impacted your work in any way? Did it raise awareness? Did it – was there any conversation about it? I just don’t recall if that ever came up, or was it – did you see any impact?
Dani Hess: Yeah. I think there was a lot of community conversation that happened as a result of Rep. Zephyr’s work in the legislature more broadly and then, you know, the challenges and the injustices that she faced during the session itself. Our LGBTQ+ liaison specifically, I think, was really animated around the pride events that were happening in our community in May and she rallied her community to show up at that pride event and, you know, gather input from the community in real time then, and I know that she had a lot of really rich conversations with folks during that outreach, and then again when she hosted these community chats at a couple of different locations in Bozeman. Well, actually, Last Best Comedy is an awesome spot in town that is really a safe haven, I think, for the queer community and she hosted a couple of community chats there with the queer community about the plan and about sort of what it’s like to live your best life as a queer person in Bozeman and the challenges that are faced by members of this community. So yeah, I think Rep. Zephyr has really paved the way, I think, in creating spaces for queer voices, and folks are listening and paying attention and rallying here in Bozeman.
Mary Morten: Wonderful.
And Rep. Zephyr, have you had an opportunity in your travels to go to other rural communities outside of Montana? And if so, what are you hearing from those communities? Similar concerns?
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: You know, what I’m hearing from the communities I’ve gone to, and I’ve gone to places in Florida where you have people like Governor Ron DeSantis pushing some of the harshest policies, to a LGBTQ youth center in Ohio where armed guards had to be on the roof because of the amount of Nazis that were saying they were going to come and push back against an event there – what I’ve seen in all of these places across the country is people doing the work on the ground, people who recognize that, you know – I often say that the attacks on LGBTQ people will fail not because – or because we’re not just a community you can isolate; we are a part of every community. And everywhere I’ve gone in the country I see people who recognize that and who say, this community is here and we are going to protect them. That has been the constant everywhere I’ve gone through Montana and across the nation.
Mary Morten: So really coming down to people understanding intersectionality, it sounds like.
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: Oh, absolutely. And this is something that we talk about – you know, when I met with, you know, Representative Cavanaugh, Senator Megan Hunt and Cavanaugh and John Fredrickson in Nebraska, we talk about the intersection between the fight for LGBTQ rights and the fight for abortion access, and the fact that in Nebraska they were only able to get their anti-trans policy across the line when they amended it to include anti-abortion measures. When we talk about what is the right willing to throw away, to achieve policy goals, that’s a conversation that Representative Justin Jones and Justin Pearson and myself are sharing in that conversation and saying, we see the way in which the mechanisms, those in power will use every tool at their disposal. There’s a reason that my union was one of the first people to stand up for me, and one of the others was the American Indian Caucus. We’re seeing the way that these fights are all connected, and the work as we travel the country is to make sure that all the isolated moments that are happening don’t fade into individual moments but they coalesce into a movement. And that, again, as you say, is intersectionality; back in the day it was coalition building broadly. But that’s the fight. It’s always been the fight and it’s why they tried to peel off the T from the LGBT initially; it’s why they first targeted sports on trans rights generally. It’s because they’re looking to peel individual segments away and our goal is to get people to recognize that these fights are all connected.
Mary Morten: Exactly. And of course, as you mentioned, this is something we saw during the marriage equality fight, and in Illinois it didn’t go the first time. Why? Because coalitions weren’t built that were broad-reaching, that were inclusive. And lesson learned. Had to do that work or it’s not going to happen, and really have – I mean, it was clear that just being more inclusive but also going to organizations that generally are not part of the fight, if you will. And I was just talking to a friend of mine who was at the National Urban League and they became just extraordinary co-conspirators, if you will, around marriage equality when, in some cases, that was maybe the last organization you might have thought was going to really take up that fight, and they did it in such a consistent and thoughtful manner that it really, as you know – this makes all the difference and it can bring many more people to the table and to the fight, and that’s what made a difference here. You know, lots of outreach, as you all know, is really important, no matter what the issue or the challenge is. I’m curious about what you would say – Dani, I’ll ask you first – to other cities that are thinking about engaging on an equity and inclusion plan but are really concerned about just, you know, getting it going and making sure they have the ongoing support for it. How did that come about in Bozeman? I know you – it sounds like you started from – you know, certainly when we were participating around the Equity Indicators Project, but something happened before then.
Dani Hess: Yeah. I mean, I think in Bozeman the timing was right for our elected leadership and our administrative leadership, city management in the city to really respond to the call to action from our community and from communities across the country to do something, right, to do something to address violence against people of color, to do something against – or to do something about – yeah, just discrimination and the sort of systemic issues around racism and bias policing and violence. So the timing was right politically, I think, here in Bozeman, but we also, I think, laid out a really solid path for us to continue to build the case to do this work, right? It started with that internal review of our own policies and practices around policing and use of force, and in that internal review, we said OK, it’s great for us to be doing this internal review but what about the broader community context and the need to sort of partner with organizations to address these inequities or disparities at a bigger level? And in order to do that, we need data, right? We need to understand the issues from a quantitative perspective, in addition to a qualitative perspective. So then that’s when we started on the Equity Indicators Project and we talked to community about what those most pressing issues were, we talked to service providers who were addressing needs in those areas, and then asked, OK, what data are you collecting in this space, what data is missing, what data is already out there that points to these disparities or inequities, to continue to justify resourcing and supporting this work. And then, once we had that, that’s when we set out to create this plan. So the plan is really founded in solid political support and data and then in this really intentional community engagement process. So it’s been a long time coming but I think that’s sort of by design and supports the sustainability of this work. Yeah.
Mary Morten: And what would you say to another city that’s thinking about doing it? What would you – be that one sort of kernel of advice that you would say, you really – this is something you really need to do as you start –
Dani Hess: Yeah. I mean, I would say don’t reinvent the wheel, right? Like, there’s a solid framework and a solid approach. And don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress, right? You know, our process has been solid; it hasn’t been perfect, right? We wish there was more comprehensive data on some of these disparities than there is, but that’s not stopping us from moving forward. And I think the other piece of advice that I have is to take risks, right, to be that thoughtful disrupter from within the system, and I think for us that was bringing on these three new staff positions. We have never brought in someone without, you know, a really specific set of qualifications and experience, right, to work on strategic planning initiatives, but we thought it was really important to get those voices directly involved and to involve their communities, the LGBTQ+ community, communities of color, the disability community, the Hispanic and Latino community that’s growing really rapidly in our valley. We knew that this plan wouldn’t go anywhere if those folks weren’t directly involved in its creation. And we can’t just keep asking folks who are at the margins to participate and provide input for free, right? That’s not going to work. That’s not sort of embodying the practices that we’re committing to with our words, so I think the community liaison model is really important and it works for, like, a project-based thing like this. You know, they’re not full-time permanent staff positions, but we want to take the next step and make those permanent, full-time staff positions to just have on staff for all of the work that we do across departments, whether it’s an equity and inclusion strategic plan or road reconstruction, right? We need to have more resources to bring more voices to the table who have been prevented from being seated at that table in the past.
Mary Morten: And Rep. Zephyr, when you think about running for political office, what would you tell someone who is thinking about running, in light of the time that you’ve had, to the experiences that you’ve had? And I’m just curious, did you go through any development programs like the Victory Fund? Did you do any of that as you were starting?
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: Yeah. So, you know, the first thing I did was your hundred cups of coffee where you’re meeting with every person who’s got an opinion on politics in the state of Montana. And then I was connected – I spoke to nearly every trans legislator across the country to ask of their experience, and one of them connected me to the Victory Fund and the Victory Institute’s candidate training. And so I went through that, which was helpful. I spoke to Run For Something; they set me up with a mentor. I did those things. I think the – my advice to folks is I talk about what I would call the concentric circles of care, and like, before you decide to run for office – like, you have circles within circles within circles. That core circle is that inextinguishable fire and that love for yourself. Like, you have to, at the end of the night, be able to look yourself in the mirror and say I’m proud of who I am and I’m proud of what I’m fighting for, because it can get hard, you know? There are cruelties and there’s just more broad difficulties of whatever room you’re trying to get in, and so you need to have that surety of self. And then, beyond that, you need communities that will care for you; whether that is, you know, your community that you are in particularly or just friends – like, people who will uplift you at the end of the day. Once you have those two things, then you can look for the room that you want to be in, and if that’s running for politics, amazing. If it’s working with a local NGO or doing mutual aid work, amazing. Wherever you think your voice can do the most good, if you get into that room, that’s where you’re supposed to be. For me, I think part of the work – I spoke with – when I was doing activism, I had a sort of partner in activism that I was working with and we described our relationship as, she would kick the door in and I would convince you that you invited us in.
Mary Morten: (Laughs.)
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: And that was a lovely dynamic. And when you’re doing politics, a lot of that is by yourself. And so what I would say is sometimes it’s going to feel like you have to kick the door in, but when you get in, you have to make sure that people feel like they invited you in there. You belong in that room. It’s worth being in there. What you’ll find is, if you are supported by your community, if you’re doing, as we talked about earlier, the intersectional work to understand the way your fight is connected to a variety of groups’ fights as well, you will find very quickly that you’re not kicking doors in anymore but people are inviting you in of their own accord. That’s my golden advice. And when it comes to politics itself, chin up, don’t look down, and reach out if you have any questions. (Laughs.)
Mary Morten: Keep at it; it’s going to be rough. Yet I’ve often heard – and I’ve thought about this myself as someone who’s been first in a couple of positions: You might be first but we want to make sure that we’re not the only ones, right? We want to make sure that there are some folks coming along with us so that ideally they don’t have to go through some of the same challenges that we did, being first. It’s always being first or being only, being the only one as well.
Dani, just in summary, what do you hope the city of Bozeman looks like in the next five years, if you wave a magic wand?
Dani Hess: Oh, I love this. So I’m a vision person, so I love getting asked about what my vision is. (Laughs.) I think Bozeman is in a big time of transition and change right now, and we have been for the last several years and we will be for the next several years, but I want to come out on the other side of this time of change with a true sense of, like, who belongs here, right, and it’s not just the people who can afford to be here. I want to see our community, everyone in the community, prioritizing housing for people who need it, and I want to see our decision makers supporting resources for providing housing for people at the margins and people who are, you know, most at risk of losing stable housing, right? I think there’s this balance in equity work between the “for all” and “for the people who are most marginalized,” right, and I would love to see that sort of consideration or that balance being considered in policy-making spaces. So I think the Bozeman five years from now, right, we’re seeing decision makers at the dais use this equity lens to make decisions about allocating resources and setting the direction, especially around housing and housing security and housing affordability in Bozeman.
Mary Morten: Well, I just want to acknowledge that, as I’ve said, I’ve seen the spark that not only you but your co-chair, Nakeisha Lyon, has for this work, and I think it’s what has sustained the process. So I’m really so grateful to you for all that you’ve done and understand the personal toll that this can sometimes take, because it’s not easy work. It’s not easy and you can’t sort of separate yourself from this work and the topics at hand, so I think sometimes people think, oh, this is just our job, right, but it really is something that you personally are committed to, and that’s been really clear. So I just want to thank you for all of your work.
And I would love to come back to you, Rep. Zephyr, and just – in terms of when you think about what’s next and what needs to be done, what should we ask of ourselves, right – because we’re all part of this – in terms of a call to action, as we think about the upcoming election and the work ahead of us? What would you say is the call to action?
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: You know, I think there’s a couple things there, the first of which is reflecting back on the getting involved in politics question initially. But what is the room your voice can do the most good in? And for some folks, it’s politics; for some folks it’s organizing; for some folks it’s just being themselves as they move through the world, holding people accountable as they move through the world. When I stood up in the legislature on Senate Bill 99, it was to hold the legislature accountable for real harm that was being done to my community based on this policy, and I hope that folks recognize that that accountability work can happen anywhere. If you are standing up in your office and saying, “Hey, you know what? Our policies here aren’t actually doing good work,” if you are – you’re looking and you’re saying, “Hey, we’ve got this procedure that we put people through and, you know, it turns out that, like, every person with a disability is coming to the end of this procedure unhappy,” you can’t just say, “You know what? We did a procedure, we’re good; we ticked the box.” Are you the person who’s going to be able to stand up and say, hey, this isn’t right, this isn’t good enough? To me, that’s part of the call to action. And then the other part is recognizing that we had a 2023 legislature with a Republican supermajority, which means that they could pass whatever they want; they could override a governor’s veto; they could do carte blanche for any policy they wanted to put forward. And so we saw a vision of what that looks like. It was not property tax relief. It was kicking people off of Medicaid. It was undercutting public education. It was ignoring climate change or public lands – like, just a broad swath of policies that are largely unpopular in Montana, including 50 constitutional amendments. My hope is that in – and the work that I’m doing going forward – is in the next 18 months – or next 12 months, at this point – making sure that people recognize that that’s – that was the Republican vision for the state of Montana, and if we want to change the state of Montana, we have to have the courage to stand up and we have to fight to get good people in office, whether that is us deciding to make that leap into running for public office, whether that is us donating to or canvassing to people who are running for office, or whether that is us just having hard conversations with folks and saying, “Hey, look at what’s happening to our state; is this the Montana we want to be or is there a kinder, gentler version of the state that we can push towards?” That, to me, is the call. Have the courage.
Mary Morten: And in closing, how can we support you from afar? Because I know folks are going to hear this and really want to lean into how we can, again, just support you from afar, you know, whether you’re in Illinois or whether you’re in California. I know I’ve talked to folks all over the country, as we’re doing our work as well, who want to support someone like you who is blazing a trail, who is, as we’ve talked about, you know, coming through doorways that haven’t been open in the past. What kind of support can we give you?
Rep. Zooey Zephyr: You know, I think there’s three things that jump to mind. I can feel the sort of spirit of my union leader behind me. She’s like, “Local, local, local.” You know, I’m proud to be fighting out here in Montana. Wherever you are listening from, there are people on the ground in your area fighting. Find them, support them so that there are folks in your communities and in your state who are willing to have the courage to stand up, to push back against bad policy and to be the kind of change you want to see in your state. Beyond that, obviously I’m running for reelection. You can talk to me about that, if you’d like. If you have input on things I could do in the state legislature, happy to hear it. And then I will be doing some work on recruiting and supporting candidates across the state of Montana, and if you want to be a part of that, just keep your eyes out on my socials; they’re all zoandbehold, very cute and adorable. But yeah, that’s all of that. Local, local, local.
Mary Morten: Wonderful. Local, local, local. We hear it. All politics are local, right? So I just want to say thank you. Thank you for everything you’re doing and everything you’re going to do and all the work that we all have to do, right? It is not just on one individual. We all have some work to do here. I grew up in a household where my mother was “either you’re part of the problem or you’re part of the solution,” and so we want to keep that going, particularly as we go into this next year of a national election. And I want to wish you the best as you get ready, you know, to run for office and to move back into the legislature in ’25. And we will continue doing our work, and so that’s where we’re going to all meet, right, as we’re doing all of our work and pushing forward.
Vince Pagán-Hill: Thank you again to Representative Zephyr and Dani for talking to Mary about the vital equity and inclusion work happening in Montana. Their work proves that there can be a blueprint for creating lasting impacts in BIPOC, disabled, and LGBTQ+ communities.
At the time of this recording, the plan was still being finalized, but since then, I am very happy to report that it was approved unanimously by Bozeman’s City Commission on December 19th. These efforts lay the groundwork for effective policy implementation, continued community engagement, and an ongoing journey toward true inclusion and equity.
Catch the rest of our “Blueprint for Belonging” series over the next couple of months on LinkedIn by following Morten Group, LLC.
Join the conversation on this and other content, and share videos with anyone who can benefit from learning about our experience creating a plan truly by and for the community.
In the meantime, make sure you’re registered to vote for your primary, cast your ballot, and keep gathering ground. I’m Vince Pagán-Hill. Until next time.