Danica Roem made history Nov. 7, becoming the first transgender person to be elected and seated to a state legislature.
Diana Tourjee, Broadly’s (the women’s site at VICE) beat reporter covering issues facing the trans community, spent the final 48 hours of Roem’s campaign with exclusive access to the candidate, and the resulting documentary is an immersive, emotional piece that not only captures what it was like on the ground with the volunteers for the campaign but also what Roem’s win means to transgender people across the country.
The 33-year-old stepmom now represents District 13 in northern Virginia, an area that was controlled for more than two decades by Republican Bob Marshall, one of the state’s most virulently anti-LGBT lawmakers. Roem’s success in local politics has made a national impact, setting the stage for other first-time candidates and transgender people to run for—and win—elections across the country.
Watch the piece above.
