LGBT in Politics

Danica Roem has been thrown into the spotlight after winning the November 2017 Virginia House of Delegates elections. And if you don't already know, she is a transgender female.  What is interesting about Danica is not only that she's the first transgender woman to be elected in a historically red state. It is her background in journalism and not politics and how she managed to win the position of her predecessor who had held the position for 25 years.

Thirteen-term Virginia Del. Robert G. Marshall and self-proclaimed Virginia's "chief homophobe" was defeated by Danica Roem. Roem announced her candidacy in January 2017 and focused the campaign on transportation and economic issues. She received a mass amount of support, donations, and endorsements. Her most notable endorsement came from former vice president Joe Biden.

Danica is only one of many transparent candidates to run this year. Minneapolis City Council will have two transgender members: Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham, who are the first openly black transgender people to be elected to public office in the US. Additionally, In Palm Springs, Calif., Lisa Middleton won a seat on her city council as the first openly transgender person elected to a nonjudicial office in the state. Tyler Titus will be the first openly transgender person to hold office in Pennsylvania after winning a seat on the Erie School Board. And Stephe Koontz, an openly transgender woman, won a city council seat in Doraville, Georgia.

Thoughts

Large media outlets like CNN, MSNBC, FOX have bombarded audiences with Trump news non-stop this year. The fascination and overreporting o the president's tweets and the racial divide in the country are important news topics, but I don't feel like news outlets report the progress and changes made in 2017 equally. All this history was made in 2017 and it was overshadowed by Donald Trumps Tweets, which is kind of disappointing. However, I do wonder if Trump wasn't (to put it kindly) himself, would we have seen so many minorities and young people proactive about the city council, state delegate, school board and other elections...

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