On Saturday, Oct. 17, KVNF spent the day in Montrose with people on both sides of the political divide: a No Kings rally, a Republican flag rally that drove right past it, and across town, a powwow. Our short feature looked at what the two rallies agree on. This Local Motion is the longer version, with more of the voices, and more of what's underneath the anger on both sides of the street.
Some of what we heard was funny. Daniel's sign at the No Kings: Vote Early rally said "Horny for Socialism," so we asked hm about it. "I am sexually aroused by the prospect of a world with a future where procreation would be continued on the planet Earth," Daniel said, a future "we're just not going to have under capitalism, which means less sex for all." Ravel, who came with Daniel, said, "I don't think I can follow that any better."
Late in the morning, the flag rally rolled slowly past, trucks and lifted Jeeps festooned with flags, Trump signs and Republican election signs, and people on the sidewalk gave thumbs up, thumbs down, peace signs and a few middle fingers. A rider named Tom had a question for them: "why all the vulgarity?"
"I stand up for my niece who's trans. I stand up for everybody who doesn't get to speak," said Jenny Singer. Phoebe Sophocles drew a sign with a granddaughter's help, "Caution: ICE ahead," with an ICE agent holding a gun at a person's head. "Because sometimes you need to do that to get the attention and to make people think," Sophocles said.
That outrage is real, and so is the fear on the other side of the street. Supporters of Proposition 134, Marx among them, say it's about fairness, and about privacy and safety for girls in school locker rooms. At the flag rally, people told us they fear for the country itself. "If people would just start reading the Bible and believing in God again, we could have our country back," one woman said.
Part of the answer is who those trucks were for. Bill, another rider, said they were "all big supporters of Victor Marx." Marx, the Republican nominee for governor, told Colorado Politics he supported Propositions 134 and 135 on this fall's ballot, Thelma Grimes reported in the Denver Gazette. One would limit school and college athletes to teams that match their biological sex, and the other would ban surgery on minors to change their sex characteristics. President Donald Trump's second term opened with orders on immigration enforcement and on transgender Americans. Many people on that sidewalk see those policies as hateful, toward immigrants, toward LGBTQ people and toward people they love.
That afternoon, across town, the Annual Uncompahgre Traditional Pow Wow held its Grand Entry, hosted by the Western Slope Native American Resource Center and History Colorado's Ute Indian Museum. The government once suppressed powwows, but "they can't rob your spirit," one of the MCs, Jackson "Rollingthunder" Tahuka, told KVNF's Audrey McCabe. (More from the powwow.)
Both sides made clear that Saturday how much this country means to them, and both were out there to get people voting. And across town, the flag that represents us all was leading dancers into the powwow arena, proudly carried by Native American military veterans.
In the second half of the show, KVNF's Marty Durlin catches us up on Delta's task force on the unhoused, a year after the city opened the Riverbend Resource Center. Durlin covered the city's May 2025 forum on homelessness for Local Motion. Her report follows.
This episode aired Oct. 27, before the Nov. 3 election. Phil Weiser, the Democrat, won the governor's race. Propositions 134 and 135 were still too close to call Thursday morning, Nov. 5. Find the latest in KVNF's election results.
Related: What Delta School District's new transgender athlete ban says — and doesn't say.
Audrey McCabe contributed reporting.
