POLITICS
Trans Women Shine on Big LGBTQ Election Night
Eighty candidates backed by the Victory Fund emerge victorious
BY MATT TRACY
Dozens of LGBTQ candidates
running for
positions ranging from
mayor to state legislator
to school board member won
their races on November 5 during
an off-year election night that notably
featured victories for six out
trans women, including Virginia
Delegate Danica Roem.
Roem made history in January
of last year when she became the
fi rst out trans person elected to
a state legislature, and this time
around she defeated her Republican
opponent, Kelly McGinn, by
more than 13 percentage points to
become the fi rst trans state legislator
to win re-election. Roem won
despite getting targeted by transphobic
attack ads pushed by the
anti-LGBTQ Family Foundation.
Virginia Delegate Dawn Adams
Virginia Delegate Danica Roem overcame transphobic attack ads to win re-election on a successful
night for LGBTQ candidates.
— who in 2017 became the fi rst out
lesbian in Virginia’s State Legislature
— and out gay Delegates Mark
Levine and Mark Sickles also won,
FACEBOOK.COM/ DANICA ROEM
helping Democrats snag control of
both houses of the State Legislature
to give the party full control of
state government — a result that
will likely lead Virginia to become
the 38th state to ratify the 1972
Equal Rights Amendment, though
whether Congress or the courts
will lift the original 1982 deadline
Congress established and allow
the amendment to take effect is
unclear.
In total, 80 candidates endorsed
by the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which
helps elect out queer folks to various
levels of government, won their
races. Four candidates won their
mayoral races, fi ve won state offi ce
competitions, and 70 won various
local offi ce races.
Notably, six out trans candidates
from around the US — all trans
women — won their respective
competitions, and Roem wasn’t the
only trans candidate to win a race
in her state: Donna Price, a trans
woman who spent 25 years in the
➤ ELECTION NIGHT, continued on p.25
November 7 - November 20, 24 2019 | GayCityNews.com
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