Virginia’s First Trans State Legislator Unseats Transphobic “Bathroom Bill” Writer

Yesterday, Virginia elected Democratic candidate Danica Roem who is now the first openly transgender woman to have been elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.

Roem had been running against Delegate Bob Marshall who held the office for 25 years. In that time, Marshall wrote an anti-gay marriage amendment and sponsored Virginia’s transgender bathroom bill (which infamously banned students from using the bathroom that corresponded to their gender identity and required administrators to out trans kids to their parents), as well as a ban on gay people serving in the National Guard—just lots and lots of awful stuff. Throughout the campaign, Marshall purposefully misgendered Roem in campaign mailers, interviews, and at any opportunity.

In response, former journalist Roem focused on an infrastructure plan that would reduce traffic on Route 28, a move that focused on the issues. “He can’t beat me on the issues,” says Roem, “When your own party kills 27 of your 30 bills in year, and 68 out of 71 bills die in a two-year period since your last reelection, then you don’t have a record to run on. That means that you resort to trash talk.”

Did we mention that Roem is also a metal vocalist?

(via Washington Post, image: Ted Eytan on Flickr)

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Charline Jao

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