Updated: Danica Roem Becomes Virginia's First Transgender State Legislator

Authored by nbcnews.com and submitted by guiltyofnothing

Democrat Danica Roem became the first transgender person to be elected to Virginia's state legislature on Tuesday after defeating a 13-term member of Virginia's House of Delegates.

Roem, a former newspaper reporter, defeated three other Democrats in the primary. Once she is sworn in in January, she will be the first openly transgender legislator seated.

Stacie Laughton, who is openly transgender, was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 2012. She never took the seat because it emerged between Election Day and her swearing in that in 2008 she (then known as Barry Charles Laughton) had been sentenced to prison for conspiracy to commit credit card fraud. Althea Garrison from Massachusetts was elected in 1992 and served one term, but never self-identified as transgender.

Hillary Clinton won Roem's district with more than 54 percent of the vote in the 2016 election.

groundr on November 8th, 2017 at 05:48 UTC »

When asked about Bob Marshall, Danica Roem said “I don’t attack my constituents. Bob is my constituent now.”

Never has professional kindness so effortlessly sounded like a Mariah Carey “I don’t know her” comment. Love it!

moop162 on November 8th, 2017 at 05:38 UTC »

The guy she defeated, Bob Marshall, might be one of the worst US politicians I've ever heard of. Apart from introducing the bathroom bill, here are some of his views:

On gays serving in the military:

Following Congress' repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in December 2010, Marshall proposed a bill to "ban gays from openly serving in the Virginia National Guard because he is worried about service members catching sexually transmitted diseases from gay troops."[27] According to the Washington Post, Marshall justified the legislation by saying: "If I needed a blood transfusion and the guy next to me had committed sodomy 14 times in the last month, I'd be worried," and "It's a distraction when I'm on the battlefield and have to concentrate on the enemy 600 yards away and I'm worried about this guy who's got eyes on me."

On disabled children:

The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children... In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There's a special punishment Christians would suggest.[23]

On abortion in the case of rape:

In response to abortions in the case of rape, Marshall said, "Your origins should not be held against you [referring to the victim's unborn child]. The woman becomes a sin-bearer of the crime, because the right of a child predominates over the embarrassment of the woman."[19]

guiltyofnothing on November 8th, 2017 at 03:19 UTC »

Worth noting that the key issue of her campaign was... traffic.