An Elected Strength
November 10, 2017
Trinity Schultheiss
An Elected Strength
Elected on Tuesday November 7, 2017 in Virginia, former newspaper reporter and first openly transgender candidate, Danica Roem, towered over a 13-term Republican State Delegate, Bob Marshall for the Virginia House of Delegates. While making history all across the US, the woman’s victory brightened tons in the LGBTQ+ community.
In spite of many complications between the two candidates and teetering by a close call, Roem’s 54.59% in votes won over Marshall’s 45.36% in votes shows statistics from the Virginia Department of Elections. She now presents herself as a state legislature in the US.
According to a CNN post about the news breaking matter, Althea Garrison was a transgender individual to serve in a state legislature elected in Massachusetts, but never campaigned about being openly transgender in her race in 1992, which differs her and Danica Roem.
There are no doubts that conflicts steamed between the two throughout the entire process. Marshall repetitively referred to Roem with male pronouns and labeled himself as the state’s ‘chief homophobe’, disrespecting not only her, but the roaring community that stood against him applied on Roem’s side, representing her as a whole. Marshall also uploaded an offensive video to Roem that directed to the way she lived.
“Delegate Marshall’s hypocrisy truly knows no bounds: saying that I’ve made my gender an issue while he [sends] two mailers attacking me for being trans and standing up for LGBTQ kids and misgenders me while he’s at it. This is what happens when he can’t defeat me [on] the core quality-of-life issues facing the people of the 13th District . . .” confirmed The Washington Post on what Roem had to say about the matter.
Despite how Marshall came off, he still claimed in an email that was later sent that his impression was, “not about Roem being transgender.“
Aside from the clash between the two, Roem performs in vastly different activities from being Virginia’s new state legislature. She sings in a melodic death metal band, whipping her head around and gaining a living already off of that. “Just because I sing in a heavy metal band while spinning my head in circles and getting paid to do it, why can’t I run for government? Why would I have to change who I am in order to run for government? I’ve already had to go through transformative change,” states Roem in an article by Noisy.
While nailing her gender identity as a strength, Roem will carry on and move forward, even if there are some who try to tear her down with them.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/08/us/election-firsts-lgbt-minorities/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/07/politics/danica-roem-virginia-transgender/index.html
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