LGBTQ State Legislative Candidates in an Era of Backlash. Issue 3 (July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Haider-Markel, Donald P.; Gauding, Patrick; Flores, Andrew; Lewis, Daniel C.; Miller, Patrick R.; Tadlock, Barry; Taylor, Jami K.
• Is Part Of: PS, political science & politics. Volume 53:Issue 3(2020)
• Page Start: 453
• Page End: 459
• Publication Date: 2020-07
• Subjects: Political science -- Periodicals; 320.05
• DOI: 10.1017/S1049096520000372
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1049-0965

Abstract

Abstract : In 2017, transgender woman Danica Roem stunned political observers in Virginia by unseating a long-time anti-LGBTQ legislator from a conservative district in the Virginia House of Delegates. 1 She was the first openly transgender person elected and seated to a state legislature. Delegate Roem's election was historic in LGBTQ political representation, but it also occurred in a period when backlash against the LGBTQ community seemed to be growing (Taylor, Lewis, and Haider-Markel 2018). These two threads led us to ask: How are LGBTQ candidates achieving historic successes even as forces seem mobilized against them?