Cole LeFavour was born on February 8, 1964 in Aspen, Colorado. Raised by unconventional parents in a loving, nurturing household, they grew up with ample time to explore the beautiful nature around their home with their sister. When Cole was 11 years old, their family purchased a ranch and moved to Idaho. When Cole was 13, their mother came out as gay. She was poorly received, which caused Cole to avoid interrogating their own queerness until much later in life. 

After high school, Cole left Idaho to attend UC Berkeley, a place they describe as “alive.” There, they became deeply involved with activism and participated in protests regarding farm worker rights and apartheid. In 1990, Cole returned to Idaho, where they continued to engage passionately with activism. They worked with environmental groups, organizations that opposed the Gulf War, and the Snake River Alliance, which raised awareness for nuclear issues. In 1994, they joined the campaign staff to fight Idaho’s Proposition 1, a referendum that would prohibit the state government from providing LGBT protection under discrimination laws. It was defeated in the polls by a majority vote. Around this time, Cole also came out and had their first queer relationship. Of the experience as a whole, Cole says simply: “It gave me hope.”

In the late 1990s, Cole decided to take action about the lack of legal protection for queer people in Idaho and began lobbying for LGBTQ+ rights in the Idaho State Capitol. In 2004, they ran for a seat in the Idaho House of Representatives and won, making them the first ever openly LGBTQ+ member of the Idaho Legislature. In 2008, they ran for and won a seat in the 19th Senate District, to which they would later be re-elected for a second term. During their time in office, Cole was extremely active in a campaign to add the four words “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to Idaho’s human rights act. The cause eventually led to multiple acts of civil disobedience at the State Capitol, of which Cole was a leader and proud participant. 

Cole’s stories about their time in office are spellbinding. They are packed with immersive details and endless facts, as well as expansive reflections on gender, queerness, and community. The experiences captured in this interview provide an invaluable perspective on a certain period in Idaho politics and reflect a changing culture regarding LGBTQ+ rights in the United States today. 

In their conversation with OUTWORDS, Cole made it clear that despite adversity, they find strength in authenticity. Through their stories about familial turmoil and societal stigma, they remain tenacious, always returning to motifs of advocacy, collective action, and hope as drivers of social change. They trust in the power of symbolic acts, and they express a belief in the ongoing need to seek out and foster community. As Cole says in their interview, “We’ll persevere. We’re not going anywhere.”