Danica Roem is the first out transgender person to serve in a state legislature, and several have followed in her footsteps — and now she’s working to assure that there will be many more at all levels of government.
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Roem, a state senator in Virginia, will be one of the people training candidates at a first-of-its-kind event in September in Los Angeles.
The LGBTQ+ Victory Institute, a sibling organization of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, will hold a Candidate and Campaign Training program for all aspiring LGBTQ+ candidates September 4-7 in Los Angeles, and immediately following, September 7-9, will be a specialized session for trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people who want to run for office. That session is a collaboration between Victory Institute and Advocates for Trans Equality. (Victory Institute provides trainings and leadership development for aspirants to public office; Victory Fund endorses out candidates.)
“What I’ve learned is the very, very big importance of making sure that once you’re successful as a candidate, you turn around and say, ‘What can I do to help you get up here too?’” Roem says.
Roem was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2017 and was reelected twice, then won a seat in the state’s Senate in 2023. Her election to the latter gave it a Democratic majority. So far, 60 of her bills have been passed into law. "We can do big things," she says.
Being the first out trans state legislator was not the most significant thing for Roem, she says; it was not being the last. Those who have come after her include Rep. Brianna Titone, who flipped a Colorado House seat from Republican to Democratic in 2018 and is now running for state treasurer; Hawaii Rep. Kim Coco Iwamato, who beat an incumbent in the Democratic primary and went on to win the general election last year; New Hampshire Rep. James Roesener, the first out trans male state lawmaker; and numerous others.
And now there are trans officials not only at the state and local levels but at the federal, with Sarah McBride’s 2024 election to represent Delaware in the U.S. House.
"To me, what’s really significant is saying, ‘Hey, look, I did this when I was told this was impossible,’” says Roem, who in her first election beat 13-term Republican incumbent Bob Marshall, considered the most anti-LGBTQ+ legislator in Virginia. During that campaign, there was even a trans journalist, who she won’t name, who told her she was doing more harm than good for the movement, she recalls.
“I want to take that lesson and I want to give it to all the LGBTQIA people who are part of this training but especially the trans people there,” Roem says.
Trans candidates, indeed LGBTQ+ candidates in general, need to be open and honest about their identity but also show they care about all the issues that are important to constituents, according to both Roem and Victory Institute Executive Director Elliot Imse.
“The vast majority of voters in this country would not find LGBTQ issues to be a priority for them,” Imse says. “We know the key to winning is to be authentic and to focus on the issues that affect everyday lives. Danica is someone who has consistently pivoted to issues that matter to her constituents.”
“Our trainings historically have been for the entire LGBTQ+ community,” Imse adds. “But we also recognize that there are particular challenges for trans, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary candidates.”
Roem went through Victory Institute training in 2016, before her first run for office, along with Andrea Jenkins, who was elected to the Minneapolis City Council the following year. She and Phillipe Cunningham, a Black trans man elected the same year, became the first out trans members of a major city’s governing body and the first African American trans people elected to office in the U.S.
“That wasn’t an accident — it was because Andrea got trained,” Roem says. Jenkins went on to be a leader in the response to George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. “She knocked it out of the park,” Roem notes. Titone and many other successful candidates have gone through Victory Institute training before their runs.
Roem is no stranger to providing training either. She helped lead a Victory Institute training in Chicago last year, and when she’s not in the Senate, she is executive director of Emerge Virginia, which trains Democratic women, both cisgender and trans, to run for office. Its trainings are open to nonbinary people, too, as long as they feel safe and included in a women-centered setting.
“The lessons I’ve learned are really, really valuable for all of these candidates,” Roem says. One lesson is that she can’t control what people say about her, but she can control the number of doors she knocks on and the conversations she has with voters, she says.
One of the winners to come out of the Chicago training was trans woman Emma Curtis, elected to the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council in Kentucky in November. “She took my template and personalized it,” Roem says. Roem was first elected at 33, and Curtis is 27. “That’s the sort of new blood we really need right now,” Roem remarks.
At the September training, Roem plans to talk with trans attendees as a group and one-on-one as well, discussing the joys as well as the challenges of campaigning.
With attacks coming from the White House and in many states, what all LGBTQ+ Americans, especially trans people, “have to understand right now is no one is coming to save us — we have to do it for us,” Roem notes.
“When LGBTQ+ people are in halls of power, it changes things,” Imse adds. He points out Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr’s success in derailing some anti-trans legislation in her state. “Having one person in these legislative bodies may not block every bad bill, but it changes the debate,” he says.
“Rep. McBride is already changing hearts and minds in Congress,” he says. While there are certain ignorant members, there are some who are open to education about trans issues, he notes. “The way that Sarah McBride is approaching this is perfect — she’s going to prove that she is focused and a strong legislator,” he says.
The partnership with Advocates for Trans Equality is exciting, Imse says. The organization, led by Executive Director Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, “is doing God’s work at this moment ... literally working night and day, making sure everyone in trans community knows how to protect themselves,” he says.
The full list of speakers for the September training has not been finalized. Registration is still open for a few more days. Applications are being taken online until 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
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