The ERA Is Queer and It Always Has Been
It s been a year since Virginia became the final state needed to ratify the ERA, and trans politician Danica Roem was a key factor. January 27 2021 9:09 AM EST
One year ago today, January 27, 2020, lawmakers in Virginia made history becoming the 38th and final state needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. One of the key pro-equality legislators in 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.