User:Maddieha646/sandbox

Early life and Education
Roem has stated that her role models growing up were Senator Chuck Colgan (D-29) and Delegate Harry Parrish (R-50) because, although they were affiliated with a party, they had more independent ideologies.

Living in Manassas, Virginia for her whole life, she attended the majority of her schooling there. She went to Loch Lomond Elementary School for grades K-3, and then All Saints School for grades 4-8. She then attended Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax, Virginia and then went to her aunt and uncle's alma mater, St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, New York to pursue Journalism.

As a student at St. Bonaventure University, she had a 1.1. GPA her first semester and was more focused on music than homework. During her second semester, she made a comeback and raised her GPA to a 3.48 and made the Dean's List. Her professors described her as tenacious, persistent, and one who worked for those who voices were often ignored.

Journalism Career
When she was a child, her grandfather would tell her, "The basis of my knowledge comes from reading the newspaper everyday". This influenced her to become a journalist. She was a journalist for 10 and a half years. Her first job out of college, in 2006, was at the Gainesville Times in Gainesville, Florida. She went to work as a news editor in August 2015 at the Montgomery County Sentinel in Rockville, Maryland, where she was employed there until December 2016. Following this job is when she decided to run for office. She claims to have a wide knowledge of policy issues due to her journalism career.

Campaign
Roem first got interested in politics in 2004 following President George W. Bush's proposal to add a constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage. After that, she was interesting in looking into how the government operates and how she could change it.

Roem was recruited to run for state delegate by her local Democratic Party, more specifically, by State Delegate Rip Sullivan, the recruiting chair for the Virginia House Democratic Caucus. She states that she had never considered running, but it did not take a lot of convincing.

Roem ran against Bob Marshall, the representative incumbent of 13 years. Marshall is a self described chief homophobe" and was a sponsor on Virginia's bill to end same sex marriage and Virginia's bathroom bill

She was endorsed by the Victory Fund, EMILY's List, Run for Something, Virginia's List, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

With the help of her LGBTQ+ supporters and allies, she was able to raise $500,000 in donations, out raising her opponent 3-to-1. She worked tirelessly during her campaign, knocking on more than 75,000 doors in a district with only 52,471 voters. She also faced hardship and discrimination during her campaign. Marshall was constantly attacking her gender identity through different advertisements. She even faced discrimination from some of the constituents in the district, facing claims that she was not a real woman due to biological factors. Furthermore, she was also attacked by a conversion therapy advocate, who stated that that Roem was trans because her father committed suicide and her grandfather failed to serve as an adequate role model for her. However, Roem never wanted the focus on her campaign to be about her gender identity, and instead focused mainly on traffic because when she was younger her mom would always be late to pick her up, a common experience for so many individuals in her district.

Election
She led by 9%, winning 54.59% of the vote.

Transition
In 2012 she started her transition and on December 3rd, 2013 she began hormone replacement therapy. In 2015, she changed her name from Dan to Danica. She described her friends and co workers as very supportive during her transition, stating that "no one cared. It was great. I could just keep doing my job". Growing up she often felt like she had no one to talk to about the way she was feeling about her gender and it wasn't until she left for college where she started to explore her identity. While at college, though, she described her struggle with gender dysphoria as "suffocating" and would often not leave her room for days. She won her university's gender buster award, and received negative responses due to it in her school's student newspaper. Due to this, she did not feel comfortable coming out during that time. During her campaign, Marshall tried to use her gender identity against her by continuously disrespecting her preferred pronouns and refusing to debate her. Marshall also stated that she was not a real woman because she will never be able to get cervical or ovarian cancer. Roem responded by releasing a video stating that her "identity shouldn't be a big deal. This is just who I am." Throughout her campaign and now as an elected official, she has received many positive and inspiring messages from trans individuals from all around the country. While very comfortable with her gender identity, she realizes the severity of the current political climate, and has stated that she strives to never make anyone uncomfortable around her because of her gender identity. Roem is proud to be a trans women and has stated that she, "never ran away from her identity. Ever. [She] owned it immediately, and [she] celebrated it."

Personal Life
Roem also is a vocalist in a melodic death metal band called Cab Ride Home and is the first death metalist to get elected. She first got interested in metal music in high school, and viewed metal as her rebellion. Her band has performed 120 shows and has toured in the United Kingdom. During her campaign, her Republican opponent tried to use this against her, claiming that she has eccentric music videos that led her to be "out of touch with the district's suburban sensibilities" and not fit for the position.

In her free time, Roem loves doing yoga and spending time with her boyfriend and his 9 year old daughter. Roem has stated that she does not discuss them that much because she doesn't want them to face the same discrimination that she has. In terms of future plans, Roem is considering writing a book.

Week 2 Assignment- Evaluate Wikipedia Week 3 Assignment
 * Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
 * Everything is relevant, but there is not much information on it.
 * Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Yes the article is neutral. The majority of it just discusses her space missions
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * no
 * Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?
 * Yes, the citations seem to match what the author wrote in the article
 * Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * Not all of the facts are cited with a reference
 * Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
 * There could be more information about her early/personal life
 * Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * Doesn't seem to be much on the talk page
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * Not sure how it is rated
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

- For Danica Roem's article I will try to add more comprehensive information about her early life and education, in addition to her journalism career. I will do this through databases such as JSTOR, in addition to books, articles, and hopefully an interview with her.