In the college town of Missoula, pride flags are as common a sight as the peaks of Montana’s Rattlesnake Mountains
Often described as a blue island in a vast red state, Missoula sent the first openly transgender legislator in state history to the state capital. Its voters, fully aware that they are vastly outnumbered by conservatives statewide, were still shocked at what happened next.
Montana has long leaned to the right, but with more of a libertarian bent than a zest for culture wars. That allowed Democrats to win the governorship regularly over the decades, and occasionally to win control of one or more houses of the Legislature. But today, Cork said, the state's “live and let live” sensibility seems to be ebbing. Conservative protesters, often armed, disrupt pride events. “Now, you don’t know who’s going to be the one who unloads on you and your community.”
Legislative Republicans contend they're the ones preserving democracy by following their chamber's rules and gagging Zephyr for maligning her colleagues, then carrying on even in the face of loud protests.
Experts say intense culture war battles are out of character for Montana politics. ”This is a conservative, libertarian state, as opposed to a conservative, authoritarian one,” said Paul Pope, a political scientist at Montana State University in Billings, noting that that far-less-liberal town’s zoo received an influx of support after conservative activists attacked its drag queen story hour recently.
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