some made their way through the narrow alleys of an arab neighbourhood, waving flags and chanting slogans. the palestinian red cross said more than 70 people were injured in clashes. now on bbc news stephen sackur is in washington with hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk from washington. i m stephen sackur. the received political wisdom here is that economic issues pretty much decide elections, and that may be true in this midterm election year because of a dramatic spike in the cost of living. and yet, there is a sense here that right now, values and culture are at the centre of the political argument. my guest today is danica roem, a democrat and the first transgender person to take a seat in a state legislature. what does her story tell us about america s culture wars? danica roem, welcome to hardtalk. thank you so much. it s good to see you. it s great to have you on the show. now, when you won your election back in 2017 to become a state legislator in virginia. mm hm. ..you we
my guest today is danica roem, a democrat and the first transgender person to take a seat in a state legislature. what does her story tell us about america s culture wars? danica roem, welcome to hardtalk. thank you so much. it s good to see you. it s great to have you on the show. now, when you won your election back in 2017 to become a state legislator in virginia. mm hm. ..you were seen across america as a trailblazer. do you still feel like that trailblazer? well, so, here s the thing. i don t try to put, you know, that title to myself. when other people ascribe it to me, that s fine. that s their interpretation. myjob is to make sure that i m fixing route 28, that i m taking care of health insurance for my constituents and really taking care of those day to day basics. and, while i m doing that, if i m able to inspire other trans people to step up and run for office, great. and when i was sworn in to the virginia house of delegates onjanuary 10th, 2018, for my first of w
are still looking to single out and stigmatise and frankly bully people, that the next easiest target for them is going to be trans people because there are fewer of us and fewer people know that they ve crossed paths with us. they have, theyjust might not know it yet, right? and so because of that, they re able to try to create an impression based on caricature, based on bad examples of certain individuals, for example, and then they re able to try to paint the entire community in a broad stroke. and so as trans people, you know, it s not necessarily fair that every single one of us has to be a good ambassador for our community. mm. it s just that that s a reality that for every time that someone meets someone like us, we very well could be the first person who s out as trans who they know that they ve met. and so when i m going door to door in my district, i m making sure that i talk to people just about whatever issues are important to them. 0ccasionally, they ll bring up trans is
to someone like him and say, you mean your son . it s heartbreaking. and that s the reality that a lot of trans people still face. we can tjust overlook that. so that s part of the reality. i wonder what s going on here. you know, on the one hand, you have a president who, remarkably, this last march, on i think it s called transgender visibility day, he said this to america s people. in an address, he said, to transgender americans of all ages, i want you to know that you are so brave, you belong. and. , joe biden said, ..i have your back. so, on the one hand, you ve got that message from the very top, from the white house. 0n the other hand, you ve got the violence, the pure hate and discrimination that you ve just described. would you see that hate, that discrimination, as something of a backlash against the progressive changes that we ve just discussed? so, i ve always said for years, as gay rights go, trans rights will follow, and that means that as gay rights become more o
across the uk as we head through the next couple of days. it ll be quite a chilly start to the morning across some southern areas, but that s where we ll see the best of the morning sunshine. quite a lot of cloud to start off for scotland and northern ireland with some patchy rain but by the afternoon, we are, essentially, all in the same boat. we ll see some spells of sunshine developing but there will also be some showers, some of which will be heavy and thundery. quite a few showers across parts of southern england, the midlands, east anglia, across this eastern side of england. maybe not as many showers across parts of wales. northern ireland, turning brighter into the afternoon, sunny spells but still scattered showers, and just 12 degrees for belfast, 11 at best in aberdeen, and these heavy showers across scotland will be quite slow moving, given we will have very light winds. now, through monday night, some of the showers will continue. the area of low pressure just sits on top