Civics

Finding and forging one’s identity and purpose can be challenging enough. Doing that while also being a member of a marginalized identity living in a conservative milieu can add more complexity to this experience. For former state Senator Cole LeFavor, that was very much a reality.

LeFavour chronicles their life in a new book, In the Arms of Mountains: A Memoir of Land, Love, and Queer Resistance in Red America. As Idaho’s first out LGBTQ+ lawmaker, LeFavor explores a journey through gender, power, and rebellion against a reactionary system. When LeFavour was 11 years old, their parents uprooted the family and purchased a ranch in the rugged landscape of Idaho. Cole and their sister came of age in the remote backcountry, learning about themselves and the world in the wilds of a rural environment situated within a larger system of inequality.

By the time they left for college, Cole was starting to grapple with their queer and nonbinary identity and was concerned about what lay ahead in their red home state. In the Arms of Mountains traces the contours of Cole’s life—from formative years connected to the land to working as a fire lookout and lone ranger, to joining anti-apartheid protests, and later becoming Idaho’s first openly queer legislator.

LeFavour’s memoir aims to be a cautionary yet inspiring story of the power of political resistance in places you least expect it.

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