Virginia was Del. Danica Roem. She’s the first out-and-seated transgender state legislator in U.S. history, proudly serving the 13th District of the Virginia House of Delegates.
When I met Roem (pictured, center) in Richmond in 2019, she was wearing an ERA necklace that her mother had worn in the 1970s.
It struck me as such a beautiful symbol of the unique generational nature of our now century-long fight for constitutional equality.
One thing Roem’s advocacy makes clear is that the ERA is queer. But this is not new. Queer people have always been at the forefront of changing the U.S.