If you're concerned about transgender bathroom policies in public schools, you should probably keep an eye on this local Virginia race.
LGBT activists are hoping the race for Virginia House District 13 becomes a story about transgender rights emerging victorious over “bigotry.” They already have their perfect villain: Delegate Bob Marshall, the incumbent who introduced Virginia's own "bathroom bill" earlier this year.
Activists will have their perfect hero, too, if Danica Roem, the first transgender candidate to run for the Virginia General Assembly, wins the Democratic primaries on June 13.
Virginia’s District 13 includes the surrounding Washington suburb of Prince William County, a county which went overwhelmingly blue in the 2016 presidential election.
Bob Marshall, who has been the 13th District's delegate since 1992, introduced a controversial transgender “bathroom bill” in the Virginia House last January. The Physical Privacy Act (HB 1612), which mandated that public school restrooms only be used by students according to their biological gender, stirred up the controversy we've all come to expect after the North Carolina debacle in 2016.
But in some ways, the bill Marshall introduced went even further than the North Carolina bill. For example, it specifies that students must use school facilities that match the sex issue on their original birth certificate. This means that those who undergo gender reassignment surgery and are re-issued a birth certificate still must use the restroom of their original sex.
Marshall also has an unfortunate history of speaking less than tactfully on matters gender, sexual orientation and even abortion. His past soundbites, such as when he claimed homosexuals are bad for the economy, make him an easy target for negative campaign ads.
All Democrats needed was a candidate sufficiently LGBT-friendly enough to contrast with Marshall’s “anti-LGBT” record, and they found that in Danica Roem, a Virginia-based reporter who came out as transgender in 2013.
Roem, whose candidacy was announced around the same time as Marshall introduced the controversial bill, has received several endorsements from local school board members, along with plenty of national endorsements.
Victory Fund, a national LGBT lobbying group, asks their members to “Help Danica fight Bigot Bob.” Emily’s List, a national group which prides themselves on getting “pro-choice Democratic women to office,” endorsed Roem on May 30.
Roem still needs to beat four other Democrats this coming Tuesday in order to take on Marshall in the election, including Sikh candidate Mansimran Singh Kahlon. But National LGBT groups are already going all-in for Roem, hoping for a “historic” victory and a warning to any politicians who are thinking about proposing any “bathroom” legislation.