Democrat Danica Roem has been elected Virginia’s first openly transgender lawmaker, defeating an incumbent candidate who sponsored an anti-transgender bathroom bill.
Roem, 33, a journalist, defeated longtime Del. Robert Marshall, 73, on Tuesday.
Marshall introduced a bill regulating bathroom use in government-owned buildings, which was killed in committee this year.
Roem ran on a platform of better transportation and infrastructure as well as increased teacher pay for the Prince William County district.
In an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday night, Roem said she’s hoping to make Virginia more inclusive.
“So no matter what you look like, where you come from, how you worship, who you love, how you identify or any other identity that you have, you should be celebrated because of who you are, not despite it,” she said. “There won’t be discriminatory legislation coming out of the 13th District.”
Earlier this year, Marshall criticized Roem for going “against nature.”
“Danica clearly is out here doing this for making a marker in the national character that you can engage in this behavior — which clearly goes against the laws of nature and nature’s God — and hold public office to make decisions on behalf of the common good,” Marshall said. “That is what is kind of at stake here.”
Roem outraised Marshall by a 3-to-1 margin. Much of the money came from LGBT activists and other supporters nationwide, according to a Washington Post report.
Ralph Northam, Virginia’s Democratic lieutenant governor, was also elected the state’s next governor.
