The politics of gender and language are colliding in one race for the House of Delegates.
Danica Roem is the first transgender candidate in Virginia history. She’s also the first candidate to be misgendered — that’s the word for when somebody uses the wrong pronoun -- he instead of she. Roem is running against Republican Delegate Bob Marshall, who introduced an unsuccessful bill to prevent transgender people from using the bathroom of the gender they identify with. Republicans are sending out direct mail attacking her as a him. Roem says she’s a she.
“Imagine if you were being misgendered by someone. It’s not consistent with the way that you live. It’s not consistent with the way that you express yourself, and it’s not consistent with the values of the 13th District.”
Raffi Freedman-Gurspan at the National Center for Transgender Equality says Republicans are using inappropriate language on purpose.
“We ask that folks respect our pronoun usage just like we respect everyone else’s, and he’s clearly using this as a tactic to say, ‘Hey look, she’s different and she’s not who she says she is,’ and that’s just completely bogus.”
A spokesman for the Republican Party of Virginia sent a written statement defending the mailer, saying it was not an attack on her gender identity. But he declined to answer questions about it. Marshall also declined repeated requests to be interviewed for this story.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
