Democrats enjoyed a better-than-expected off-year election day yesterday. This was particularly true in Virginia, where the party took control of the House of Delegates and retained the Senate, putting a seriously damper on the power of anti-LGBTQ+ Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
One individual with a particular cause to celebrate is Rozia Henson. He became the first Black, out gay man elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. He took District 19.
He was the only candidate as the Republican Party chose not to contest the seat.
Former Democratic candidate Makya Little decided to run a write-in campaign against Henson after losing a primary in June.
BREAKING: @Henson4Virginia just won his race for Virginia’s HD-19, making history as the 1st openly gay Black man ever elected to the VA legislature.
Rozia is committed to fighting for gun safety legislation, women’s rights, & ensuring public schools get the funding they need. pic.twitter.com/Kqg5R758Wa
— Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (@DLCC) November 8, 2023
According to his campaign website, “Rozia ‘J.R.’ Henson Jr. is a resident born and raised in Woodbridge, Virginia. Born to a teenage mother, who raised him alongside his stepfather, Rozia became the second child for the couple.
He attended Virginia State University, “receiving his bachelor’s degree in Political Science, and later attended and graduated from the University of Maryland University College to receive his Master of Business Administration degree. Today, he is a successful federal contractor and Program Manager for the Department of Homeland Security while maintaining his Small Business as a consultant.”
Danica Roem
Other victors last night include Virginia Delegate Danica Roem. She became the second out trans person ever elected to a state senate in the United States. She is also the first out trans person elected to a state senate in the South.
To the people of western Prince William County, the City of Manassas Park and the City of Manassas: I’m so grateful to continue serving my lifelong home community, now in the state Senate.
According to the Victory Fund, a PAC set up to help support LGBTQ+ candidates seeking office, “over 200 out LGBTQ+ candidates won their elections in 2023 – including 148 tonight – more than in any other odd-numbered election year in U.S. history.”
Victory Fund President and CEO Annise Parker welcomed the success of Henson, Roem, Cole and others in Virginia.
“Today, voters across Virginia resoundingly rejected the politics of bigotry and fear directed at the LGBTQ+ community,” Parker said. “In Virginia and around the country, tonight’s results show that hate is a losing issue at the ballot box. We’re proud that our LGBTQ+ Victory Fund candidates were key to delivering a pro-equality majority in the General Assembly that will stand up to Glenn Youngkin’s bigoted policies.”
Away from Virginia, Democrats also enjoyed notable success in Kentucky, where the incumbent Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, won re-election in a traditionally red state with an improved margin on his 2019 win.
Housing and civil rights attorney Rue Landau won an at-large seat on the Philadelphia City Council, making history as the first out LGBTQ+ candidate to win election to the council. Until now, Philadelphia was the only major US city not to have an LGBTQ+ council member.
In Ohio, voters approved a measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. Many political commentators believe last year’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, and some red states introducing strict abortion restrictions, continue to turn voters off the Republican Party.
Falwell is urging disgruntled conservative counties in Virginia to secede from their state and hop on over to West Virginia where Democrats aren’t in charge and they can be more homophobic.
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Did you ever answer my question? How many of these people made LGBTQ issues the centerpiece of their campaign? How many people still reject gender healthcare for children? The percentage of people who prioritized abortion rights. This is where data and trends come from, dumba$$. Again, y’all can read off some press releases. That’s also what the morons who watch Fox News do.
I’ve got news for you, ZZdumba$$. Trans youth health care wasn’t on the ballot. Until you can present evidence otherwise. “A Marist/NPR/PBS NewsHour poll in March found that Americans oppose such legislation by 11 points (43 percent in favor, 54 percent opposed). A similar survey by Selzer & Co./Grinnell College in March found a comparable result, with voters opposed to legislation that would “ban transgender children from receiving gender-affirming medical care” by 12 points (41 percent in favor, 53 percent opposed).Reuters/Ipsos survey from March asked whether respondents agreed that “doctors should be banned from providing transgender minors with treatments that help change their physical characteristics to better resemble their gender identity,” which showed 55 percent in agreement and 33 percent disagreeing.”
There’s even a breakdown in Democratic voters in California. This issue is nuanced. It isn’t the win you think it is. People like me? We will keep talking to politicians in Washington about how the healthcare system failed us. Your side will continue to pile up losses as 11 major lawsuits are on the horizon with a conservative-bent Supreme Court. And that’s the way it is, sweet baby.
Anything the supreme court decides, can be undone. See Roe as an example and continuation of losses of the right. Yall haven’t won an election of importance since 2016. Tough track record you got there, but please keep doubling and tripling down. It’s awesome watching the GQP continue to shed more voters.
You’re someone who tut-tutted 12-year-olds being raped and getting their abortion denied. You’re such a stellar human being allowing those same 12-year-old autistic kids a lifetime of orgasm denial when they haven’t the slightest idea how to articulate that concept. Most sane people aren’t buying it, ZZdumba$$. The sea change has occurred in European countries. You already lost that issue.
Yeah, Marist is right-wing propaganda. This is someone who parrots MSNBC like a brain-dead Fox News viewer. God, you are the biggest idiot on this Website. And that’s saying something. This site has Dickvaney and Abcrabs.
And lastly, ZZdumba$$, it’s fascinating that you say GQP and elections since 2016. I haven’t voted Republican in my lifetime. I had a botched gender transition and realized your propaganda was on par with conservatives. That’s who you’re talking to. Despite your delusional MSNBC fantasies, that’s the reality of that situation. What other commenters said is correct. Y’all (Abcrabs, Dickvaney, etc.) are so ensconced in this two-party duopoly gam that your intellectual thought process has completely absconded. Sad. It’s like I’m talking to my conservative octogenarian father who watches eight hours of Fox News. Cut from the same cloth.
I am a big supporter of Danica. Donated. Attended events. Posted pictures with her on my Instagram. I’m glad she won. I know I did more than any oy you. To be very clear, she won because of her focus on issues important to her constituents. She was an extremely successful Virginia delegate, authoring and passing bills addressing things like children’s nutrition/health and local traffic congestion issues.
She proudly declared herself a trans woman but does not repeat the divisive and incorrect rhetoric “trans women are women”. She made being trans a detail and not the reason she was running. She is smart. She is the kind of LGBT person we need in government.
Trans issues are complicated. Very few people care if an adult has chosen to live trans – her voters certainly didn’t have an issue with it. Most people are concerned with transitioning kids, as if it were some sort of contest to win. Most people do not support trans women in women’s sports, and no amount of name calling will change that. The fact most of you can’t wrap your heads around these nuanced issues is central to the problems of the fringe left.
LOL Hardly a “rainbow wave” Rozia Henson ran uncontested with no Republican candidates running. Many other’s were just re-elected which is common for sitting candidates.
And please, can someone translate the following quote from this article? “Born to a teenage mother, who raised him alongside his stepfather, Rozia became the second child for the couple.” As written it states that his teenage mother raised him along with raising his stepfather. And if he’s a stepfather, how is Rozia the second child for the couple?
Aquafina, I know what he’s trying to say, but he didn’t say it. I’m assuming Rozia was raised by a single mother who later married and the step father also helped raise the boy, and then they had a second child, which would then make that child the second child. The way it’s written is incorrect, and this is a site where the writers need to be clear.
”Word economy is the practice of using fewer words to say more. For less practiced writers, it means revising your work to eliminate redundant, unnecessary, cliché, or weak language to make your writing stronger and clearer.”
Try it tran ny, you might make more friends. You are more boring than that busy signal on your land line.
Wow. Using slurs when you have a trans relative. So very believable. Racist against Latinos and Blacks, too. Where’s your raccoon cap, Abby? Don’t you have government buildings to storm, babe? Maybe some REO Speedwagon lyrics to blurt out? I know I’m dealing with the top brass.
Just saw a Youngkin news press briefing where he said that Virgiinia is clearly a swing state where people are comfortable working across party lines to get things done. My takeaway was that the Republicans must really have lost big there yesterday.
Youngkin was already thinking of measuring for new drapes as the hero-ex-machina, bankrolled by right-wing billionaires, to step into the GQP race if they can get Don the Con out of there, and his grand vision for VA and the US….fizzled like a wet fuse Tuesday night! If he’s talking about “working across party lines” blah blah, it underscores how much of a lame duck he knows he is. Oh well. I guess he’ll be gearing up for a 2026 US Senate run!
It was an abortion wave.
Republicans way over-played their hand in red states turning pregnant women into crime suspects, and women don’t trust them with their right to bodily autonomy. Youngkin learned the hard way.
Abortion was the central idea on these local, state races. It is powerful for us. The republicans will continue to double down on this, to our benefit. Will it resonate next year in bigger races? I hope. I’m not so sure.
The fringe left keeps finding ways to hurt us. This Hamas love is just the most recent example of having all the facts available, denying one’s they don’t like, and arrogantly championing lies. Now the nuts are attacking art works in the US too. I’m guessing they will start blocking streets too, like their European cousins. The core of the republican block hates you. It’s visceral for them. A large portion of democrats find you repugnant too but have yet to figure out how to not throw the baby out with the bath water.
I had that very discussion with a co-worker. Liberal, LGBT-friendly, straight. He was saying how their friends think their little boy is trans because he has always acted like a girl. I told him point blank that they are projecting themselves on a little boy who is probably just gay and to not go down the trans path unless there are extreme issues. It’s like people think they are helping by pushing kids who really just need to be encouraged to be the best of who they are.
inbama refuses to bow down to your trans-mania bullying, just like me. A homophobe? No idea where you came up with that, but that doesn’t surprise me when it comes to you.
Lol, db, you never saw a gay boy you didn’t want to neuter. That makes you the homophobe, literally. You do know the definition of important words like homophobe, right? You do know the difference between a trans woman and a transvestite, right? I don’t think so. You do know the conditions that are required for a diagnosis of being transgender, right? I don’t think you have a clue about the foundation of your often shared, ill-conceived opinions.
Defending each other? You mean agreeing on topics? Opinions you can’t shake with real arguments, so you make personal attacks? Yeah, I guess we are guilty. But what does that make you?
You would know……that’s your stock-in-trade. That, and being a republican who hangs out with Gay people.
It would be nice if both of you,would stop wasting your time. If for nothing else, your contributions keep us informed of the stupidity we are up against. You might as well just keep it coming. You’re interesting.
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ZzBomb
@Decrans
Wanna take another swing at how the country is rejecting LGBTQ+ people????
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
abfab
She can’t talk right now, you know, Crossfit all day, moving to Florida, screwing Latinx people…..
decrans
Did you ever answer my question? How many of these people made LGBTQ issues the centerpiece of their campaign? How many people still reject gender healthcare for children? The percentage of people who prioritized abortion rights. This is where data and trends come from, dumba$$. Again, y’all can read off some press releases. That’s also what the morons who watch Fox News do.
decrans
And I’m glad I occupy Abcrabs’s thoughts so much. He probably wants to jerk it to my fat uncut schlong. Adorable.
decrans
I’ve got news for you, ZZdumba$$. Trans youth health care wasn’t on the ballot. Until you can present evidence otherwise. “A Marist/NPR/PBS NewsHour poll in March found that Americans oppose such legislation by 11 points (43 percent in favor, 54 percent opposed). A similar survey by Selzer & Co./Grinnell College in March found a comparable result, with voters opposed to legislation that would “ban transgender children from receiving gender-affirming medical care” by 12 points (41 percent in favor, 53 percent opposed).Reuters/Ipsos survey from March asked whether respondents agreed that “doctors should be banned from providing transgender minors with treatments that help change their physical characteristics to better resemble their gender identity,” which showed 55 percent in agreement and 33 percent disagreeing.”
There’s even a breakdown in Democratic voters in California. This issue is nuanced. It isn’t the win you think it is. People like me? We will keep talking to politicians in Washington about how the healthcare system failed us. Your side will continue to pile up losses as 11 major lawsuits are on the horizon with a conservative-bent Supreme Court. And that’s the way it is, sweet baby.
ZzBomb
@decrans
Every “poll” I have ever checked of yours turns out to be a complete fabrication, this one being no exception. LOL
Keep losing! I’m enjoying watching you spiral
ZzBomb
@decrans
Anything the supreme court decides, can be undone. See Roe as an example and continuation of losses of the right. Yall haven’t won an election of importance since 2016. Tough track record you got there, but please keep doubling and tripling down. It’s awesome watching the GQP continue to shed more voters.
decrans
You’re someone who tut-tutted 12-year-olds being raped and getting their abortion denied. You’re such a stellar human being allowing those same 12-year-old autistic kids a lifetime of orgasm denial when they haven’t the slightest idea how to articulate that concept. Most sane people aren’t buying it, ZZdumba$$. The sea change has occurred in European countries. You already lost that issue.
decrans
Yeah, Marist is right-wing propaganda. This is someone who parrots MSNBC like a brain-dead Fox News viewer. God, you are the biggest idiot on this Website. And that’s saying something. This site has Dickvaney and Abcrabs.
decrans
And lastly, ZZdumba$$, it’s fascinating that you say GQP and elections since 2016. I haven’t voted Republican in my lifetime. I had a botched gender transition and realized your propaganda was on par with conservatives. That’s who you’re talking to. Despite your delusional MSNBC fantasies, that’s the reality of that situation. What other commenters said is correct. Y’all (Abcrabs, Dickvaney, etc.) are so ensconced in this two-party duopoly gam that your intellectual thought process has completely absconded. Sad. It’s like I’m talking to my conservative octogenarian father who watches eight hours of Fox News. Cut from the same cloth.
dbmcvey
Is it ever really “lastly” with this troll?
LumpyPillows
I am a big supporter of Danica. Donated. Attended events. Posted pictures with her on my Instagram. I’m glad she won. I know I did more than any oy you. To be very clear, she won because of her focus on issues important to her constituents. She was an extremely successful Virginia delegate, authoring and passing bills addressing things like children’s nutrition/health and local traffic congestion issues.
She proudly declared herself a trans woman but does not repeat the divisive and incorrect rhetoric “trans women are women”. She made being trans a detail and not the reason she was running. She is smart. She is the kind of LGBT person we need in government.
Trans issues are complicated. Very few people care if an adult has chosen to live trans – her voters certainly didn’t have an issue with it. Most people are concerned with transitioning kids, as if it were some sort of contest to win. Most people do not support trans women in women’s sports, and no amount of name calling will change that. The fact most of you can’t wrap your heads around these nuanced issues is central to the problems of the fringe left.
abfab
Fringe left. How original. Fringe left. Fringe left! FRINGE LEFT! It has a nice ring to it. You should keep it.
LumpyPillows
Yes, I was talking about you. Our albatross with the vapid comments.
decrans
Don’t upset him. He’s mentally unstable and might post Robert Goulet lyrics.
dbmcvey
See, we all knew it wasn’t really “lastly.”
Kangol2
It was quite a night, in VA and elsewhere.
And don’t forget, Glenn Youngkin gave $500,000 to Roem’s Repug opponent and Roem STILL WON!
Also, Gov. Andy Beshear was openly pro-trans, vetoing the GQP’s anti-trans legislation earlier this year, and STILL WON!
Congrats to Rozia Henson, Danica Roem, Joshua Cole, and all the Democratic legislative victors last night.
abfab
Youngkin is a raving lunatic. He whips the white, right wingers into a frenzy, and then loses.
ShaverC
LOL Hardly a “rainbow wave” Rozia Henson ran uncontested with no Republican candidates running. Many other’s were just re-elected which is common for sitting candidates.
And please, can someone translate the following quote from this article? “Born to a teenage mother, who raised him alongside his stepfather, Rozia became the second child for the couple.” As written it states that his teenage mother raised him along with raising his stepfather. And if he’s a stepfather, how is Rozia the second child for the couple?
abfab
Hey Mister Kill Joy. To us, it’s a rainbow wave. To people like you, it’s not. You’re common.
Aquafina
Umm… they had two kids. It’s not difficult!
dbmcvey
Poor triggered Shaves.
ShaverC
Aquafina, I know what he’s trying to say, but he didn’t say it. I’m assuming Rozia was raised by a single mother who later married and the step father also helped raise the boy, and then they had a second child, which would then make that child the second child. The way it’s written is incorrect, and this is a site where the writers need to be clear.
abfab
And in the end, Shavez, it’s really none or your business.
Mr. Stadnick
Poor writing and editing skills.
dbmcvey
Great news from Virginia and Ohio!
abfab
YES!
dbmcvey
And even Kentucky!
LumpyPillows
It was a hopeful night in many states. I’m still wary of 2024, but I am encouraged.
abfab
READ OUT ON DECRANS
900,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 WORDS
ZERO (0) CONTENT
decrans
Aw. No song lyrics from Rush to post about? Poor dear.
ZzBomb
They get paid by the letter. It’s what flunkies do when they can’t hold down a real job.
decrans
ZZdumba$$: How many replies have you made today? Here’s that mirror again.
abfab
”Word economy is the practice of using fewer words to say more. For less practiced writers, it means revising your work to eliminate redundant, unnecessary, cliché, or weak language to make your writing stronger and clearer.”
Try it tran ny, you might make more friends. You are more boring than that busy signal on your land line.
decrans
Wow. Using slurs when you have a trans relative. So very believable. Racist against Latinos and Blacks, too. Where’s your raccoon cap, Abby? Don’t you have government buildings to storm, babe? Maybe some REO Speedwagon lyrics to blurt out? I know I’m dealing with the top brass.
dbmcvey
Do we know why this person keeps coming back? He’s not gay, he’s not bi, he’s not trans. He’s just a homophobe.
Fahd
Just saw a Youngkin news press briefing where he said that Virgiinia is clearly a swing state where people are comfortable working across party lines to get things done. My takeaway was that the Republicans must really have lost big there yesterday.
abfab
He’s one big mess.
abfab
And SANTORUM said something interesting today but he bores me so you all can look it up. WARNING! He gets more and more dumb every year.
Kangol2
Youngkin was already thinking of measuring for new drapes as the hero-ex-machina, bankrolled by right-wing billionaires, to step into the GQP race if they can get Don the Con out of there, and his grand vision for VA and the US….fizzled like a wet fuse Tuesday night! If he’s talking about “working across party lines” blah blah, it underscores how much of a lame duck he knows he is. Oh well. I guess he’ll be gearing up for a 2026 US Senate run!
inbama
It was an abortion wave.
Republicans way over-played their hand in red states turning pregnant women into crime suspects, and women don’t trust them with their right to bodily autonomy. Youngkin learned the hard way.
dbmcvey
And yet, here you are, batting for the anti-LGBT conservatives.
LumpyPillows
Abortion was the central idea on these local, state races. It is powerful for us. The republicans will continue to double down on this, to our benefit. Will it resonate next year in bigger races? I hope. I’m not so sure.
The fringe left keeps finding ways to hurt us. This Hamas love is just the most recent example of having all the facts available, denying one’s they don’t like, and arrogantly championing lies. Now the nuts are attacking art works in the US too. I’m guessing they will start blocking streets too, like their European cousins. The core of the republican block hates you. It’s visceral for them. A large portion of democrats find you repugnant too but have yet to figure out how to not throw the baby out with the bath water.
2024? It’s going to be a shitshow.
inbama
@dbmcvey
I’m a loyal Democrat, but I’m hoping to change minds here and save effeminate gay kids from ghouls like you who want to castrate them.
abfab
More mental illness on display. It’s The Inbama Show!
LumpyPillows
I had that very discussion with a co-worker. Liberal, LGBT-friendly, straight. He was saying how their friends think their little boy is trans because he has always acted like a girl. I told him point blank that they are projecting themselves on a little boy who is probably just gay and to not go down the trans path unless there are extreme issues. It’s like people think they are helping by pushing kids who really just need to be encouraged to be the best of who they are.
abfab
Ghouls! Fringe left! Castration! My god you guys are stuck in some sort of loop. Refresh yourselves now. Read a new book. Anything!
LumpyPillows
Abby, off your meds again? Make a point or be ignored as usual.
Baron Wiseman
@LumpyPillows
Good for you! Good advice to your co-worker.
dbmcvey
@inbama, no, you’re a gross anti-gay homophobe.
LumpyPillows
inbama refuses to bow down to your trans-mania bullying, just like me. A homophobe? No idea where you came up with that, but that doesn’t surprise me when it comes to you.
dbmcvey
Lumps, you’re a gross homophobe too!
It’s cute how you defend each other, repellent as you both are.
abfab
Dr Lumpy and his meds again.
LumpyPillows
Lol, db, you never saw a gay boy you didn’t want to neuter. That makes you the homophobe, literally. You do know the definition of important words like homophobe, right? You do know the difference between a trans woman and a transvestite, right? I don’t think so. You do know the conditions that are required for a diagnosis of being transgender, right? I don’t think you have a clue about the foundation of your often shared, ill-conceived opinions.
Defending each other? You mean agreeing on topics? Opinions you can’t shake with real arguments, so you make personal attacks? Yeah, I guess we are guilty. But what does that make you?
abfab
LumpyPillows
Lol, db, you never saw a gay boy you didn’t want to neuter.
~~~~~~~~~~
WOW. You are one sick individual but watching you spiral out of control is interesting. Keep going.
Baron Wiseman
@Lumpy
Why do you bother? Stop wasting your time and energy on two people that have nothing to say. It’s not only annoying, but really kind of sad.
abfab
You would know……that’s your stock-in-trade. That, and being a republican who hangs out with Gay people.
It would be nice if both of you,would stop wasting your time. If for nothing else, your contributions keep us informed of the stupidity we are up against. You might as well just keep it coming. You’re interesting.