On December 14th in Missoula, Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr married writer Erin Reed in front of 100 of their family and friends. The transgender women met nearly three years ago and Zooey proposed a year and a half ago at the Queer Prom in Missoula. The wedding was celebrated in the same place they got engaged, the Missoula Fairgrounds. Zooey wrote about how they met, the Queer Prom proposal, and her sweet relationship with Erin’s son Andy in this essay for Time. (“Thank you for loving me,” Erin says to Zooey. “Easiest thing I’ve ever done,” Zooey always replies.)
Rep. Zephyr represents Missoula in the Montana state legislature. Reed researches and writes about policies and proposals impacting the LGBTQ community, deeply tracking bills, testimony, and impacts. The two advocates fell in love “doing the work” – supporting transgender people and their families. Reed and Zephyr met in Texas, called to help families of trans youth find safe states to relocate after the Texas attorney general targeted parents for providing essential health care and affirmation of their trans children.
Their love blossomed during the most tumultuous time in recent history for the trans community, as state legislatures across the country were proposing hundreds of bills targeting transgender people and youth. Rep. Zephyr herself was censured for speaking up against anti-trans bills in the Montana statehouse.
Zooey and Erin appeared together at the GLAAD Media Awards a few days after getting engaged in May 2023. GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis, in her on-stage remarks, congratulated the couple and quipped: “I’m available to officiate!” The two looked at each other and immediately said, “Let’s find out if she’s serious!” (Spoiler alert: Ellis said yes.)
Rep. Zephyr was invited to speak at the GLAAD Media Awards alongside former Oklahoma state Rep. Mauree Turner, another elected official who had been censured by legislative colleagues for supporting a transgender protestor in the Oklahoma capitol building.
Zooey wrote about the speech she delivered at Queer Prom leading up to her proposal to Erin: “I was afforded a few minutes to give a speech in which I expressed the various loves in my heart—love of the woman I’d become, love of the community I get to be a part of, and my love of Erin and everything she means to me. Before my queer community, in the city that had cared for me throughout my transition and gave me the honor of representing them, I got down on one knee and asked Erin to marry me.”
On December 14th after their “I do’s,” Erin and Zooey hosted dinner and dancing for their invited guests. Their first dance was accompanied by the song: You Can’t Hurry Love.
Erin posted wedding photos and this message on her Bluesky profile and Substack: “We plant our flag together, for those we care about, and face the future side by side, grounded in an unimaginable love…. I promised her a love that feels like home, a love that feels like family. I promised her forever, in every sense of the word.”
“What a perfect wedding, my love,” Zooey posted. “Every second of that day is etched into my heart forever. And every vow I made—from promising you a gentle love to promising to be a good mom to our son—will be at the center of all I do.
As I said at the closing of my vows, I am yours I am yours I am yours.”
