Danica Roem Officially Sworn in as Virginia State Rep

Though she’s been an official Virginia state representative in our hearts since winning her election, Danica Roem was officially sworn into the Virginia House of Delegates on Wednesday, the Washington Blade reports.

Roem joins four other openly LGBTQ members in the Virginia state legislature. She is, however, the first out transgender woman to hold a state legislative role in the United States. In her election, she defeated anti-LGBTQ Republican Bob Marshall, who repped the district since 1992.

Roem is entering a thinly Republican led legislature, with the GOP holding 51 of the 100 seats.

Roem was one of several out LGBTQ candidates who won their respective elections in November. Roem is not the only LGBTQ politician to ascend to power this week. On Monday, gay Stamford, Connecticut judge Andrew J. McDonald was nominated by Connecticut’s governor to be the state supreme court’s chief justice. If elected, he’d be the first out gay chief justice in the US.