Trans lawmaker Danica Roem can’t wait to be sworn in on her favorite Metallica album

In 2017, Danica Roem of Virginia made history when she became the first out transgender person in the U.S. to be elected to a state legislature.

Her opponent was the state’s self-described “chief homophobe,” the author of a bathroom bill knockoff modeled on the North Carolina law that inspired a raft of Fortune 500 companies and sporting events to flee the Tar Heel state in 2016.

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He resigned as New Jersey’s governor in 2004 after he came out as “a gay American.”

Roem swept into office by eight points.

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The 39-year-old was reelected delegate twice and, in November, prevailed in a race for state senator, representing Virginia’s 30th District and her hometown, Manassas.

Roem found public service after a career in journalism, along with a stint as lead vocalist for the thrash metal band Cab Ride Home. She’s engaged to be married in 2026.

She spoke with us from her home in Manassas on a cold, wet, and blustery day, where cats interrupted the conversation more than once.

LGBTQ NATION: You pretty much bombed your first semester in college, finishing with a 1.1 GPA. In your second semester, you turned it around and earned a 3.48 and a place on the Dean’s list. What changed?

DANICA ROEM: Well, as I detailed in my book, Burn the Page — which is out by Viking Books, by the way, and I did the audiobook myself, as well — what changed was they put me in the academic restoration program. So I was required not only to attend every class, but I had to complete every single homework assignment, where I had just not been doing homework assignments. That was mandatory or else you’re gone. And I remember the counselor I had there, Joe, one day he stops and he goes, “You know you don’t belong here, right?” And I was like, “Yeah, I know, Joe. I f**ked up.”  

You followed college with a career in journalism as a local reporter in Virginia and then as a news editor in Maryland. Who deserves more respect? The reporter or the editor?

It’s not that one deserves more respect. It’s that they are essential for each other. I mean, you can have a one-person editorial staff, that’s a thing. Sometimes that happens. But that also means that you’re not going to have the same level of scrutiny that a reporter is going through. An editor doesn’t have a safety net, so when you make the decision, that decision is final, and you have to deal with all the consequences, positive and negative, that come with it. Same with being a candidate for office, and then being a legislator. The buck stops with you.  

In 2020, you co-sponsored a bill to protect freedom of the press for student journalists at public schools, which would have prohibited school administrators from censoring students’ work unless it’s defamatory or incites violence. As a former editor, how realistic was that ask?

It was and still is a realistic ask.

It’s just so funny. I got so much attention for co-sponsoring that bill and so little attention for the fact that we passed my shield law at the same time to prevent reporters from being jailed for not disclosing the identity of confidential sources. A reporter needs to be able to do the job of government accountability. It’s the absolute essence of the Fourth Estate.

The choice couldn’t have been any starker between you and your first opponent for state delegate, a 13-term incumbent and the self-described “chief homophobe” of the Virginia Legislature. He must have thought you’d be his dream opponent. How was he wrong?

Well, he was wrong because he lost.

I’ve seen you in a great t-shirt that reads, “You should smile more,” with “smile” crossed out and “Run for office” replacing it. How important is a well-timed smile in your job?

When you’re in this line of work and somebody might say something that is blatantly offensive, rude, mean, whatever it is, sometimes all you can do is smile. And that’s it. I had someone make a transphobic comment to me outside of one of our polling locations on Election Day — most people don’t do that stuff, but, you know, one person made a comment, and I said, “Thank you for voting today.” Sometimes you just gotta know when to force it through and just remember that the moment passes, and it’s gone. It’s gone. Moving on to next thing.  

You voted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act in Virginia in your first term as delegate. Should the U.S. have universal health care?

Of course we should have universal health care. No one should have to live uninsured like I did in my early 30s. When I was sworn into office, I was still uninsured for the next three weeks after that. No one should be uninsured. And because of my vote — let me give you the updated number here — 714,271 Virginians now are enrolled in Medicaid expansion, including 30,472 people in Prince William County and 2,896 in the City of Manassas. 4,690 of them had their cancer treatments covered. You tell me why two-thirds of the “pro-life” party voted to leave people uninsured when they couldn’t get their cancer treatments covered any other way.

One focus of your work as delegate has been on transportation issues. Has Secretary Pete been there to help?

Secretary Pete has certainly been helpful for Northern Virginia. Last week I was at a press conference unveiling $729 million coming in because of the bipartisan infrastructure bill that Secretary Pete absolutely was involved in. At the same time, I’m tracking down as many federal grants that are possible to fund our roadway projects and the like.

What’s the one single thing the world should do to address climate change?

Rooftop solar for every parking lot in the entire country that is uncovered right now.

Are the Moms for Liberty completely irredeemable?

The Moms for Liberty didn’t have any influence on my election. Some of them are my constituents, so I’m not going to badmouth my constituents. But at the same time, Moms for Liberty had a candidate forum that my challenger attended, and he lost.

You’re a self-described yogini. What is your favorite position and why?

My favorite asana? Mermaid is pretty fun. When I’m doing my heavy metal yoga though, I really like going from warrior two to warrior three. It’s a pretty cool little soundtrack in the moment.

You’ve got great hair and I’d say it’s part of your public persona. What’s your routine?

Wash it twice a week. That’s it, and I don’t use blow dryers. For like the better part of 30 years I probably just used Pert Plus. One day, my stylist was like, it’s time for you to grow up. Now I use Sebastian Dark Oil for shampoo and conditioner.

When it comes to my face and my hair, I’ll spend some money, but I’m wearing a metal hoodie that I got in 2018.

What’s your favorite metal song title and why?

So oddly enough, one of the most panned and hated Metallica albums of all time gave me my two favorite Metallica songs: Bleeding Me and The Outlaw Torn. Those are my jams. That’s my stuff. I love it.

But my favorite album, Metallica’s …And Justice for All, I will be getting sworn in on a 1988 vinyl copy of that on January 10th. I will have that on my desk.

You’ve described metal as anti-authoritarian. Do we need an army of metalheads to bring down an authoritarian like Trump?

(laughing) What I will say is that metalheads are willing to call BS when we see it, that’s for sure. And at the same time, when you have a distrust of one central power, one central authority, it also means that you have to give a lot more trust to the collective, or a lot more to trust to the people in general.

At the same time, though, I’ll also say that heavy metal minds are not a monolith. At all. Some of my greatest allies in politics have been from heavy metal, and some of the stupidest things said about me have come from some metalheads.

Virginia Governor Glenn Younkin has shrouded his anti-LGBTQ+ views under a friendly sweater vest, but it’s not really a secret he’s trying to exploit the culture wars to his advantage. 1) Have you spent any time with him one-on-one?  2) How has he treated you? And 3) Is his strategy for pretending to be a reasonable Republican working?

1) Yes. 2) Cordial. 3) He’s signed 18 of my bills into law, and at the same time he spent $780,000 trying to defeat me, and he lost. The idea of discriminating against LGBTQ+ kids, you know, under the guise of some other moniker — people have seen right through it.

I’ve been on the ballot four times, and they ran the most transphobic campaign against me by far this year. They doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on transphobia. And they lost. And they lost to an out trans woman who was unabashedly supportive of all of her constituents. The voters defeated them, and they defeated that message.