Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

My guest today is something of a political pioneer, the first transgender person to take a seat in an American state legislature.

Danica Rome was elected to represent Virginia's 13th district in the state's House of Delegates in 2017.

Since then, she has been re-elected twice and has acquired a national public profile, not just as an advocate for the LGBT community,

but also as an exemplar of a progressive politician capable of winning votes in a state

with a strong conservative tradition.

All this from unlikely beginnings.

Her father took his own life when she was just three years old.

In her youth, she was a boy who longed to be a girl but felt unable to express this body dysphoria.

She only told her mother of her gender transition when she was 30,

and by then she'd been in a heavy metal rock band,

spent years as a local newspaper reporter,

and worked a host of menial jobs to make ends meet.

She became an active Democrat and was asked by the party if she wanted to

stand against a die-hard incumbent conservative in her home Virginia district. She pulled off an

historic, unexpected win, not by focusing on her personal story, but campaigning on local issues.

Nonetheless, her victory was symbolic, and now, as American

politics is gripped by cultural battles between conservatives and progressives over issues

like abortion, transgender rights, and gay marriage, her story has put her on a national stage.

But what does it really tell us about America's polarized society? Well, Danica Rome joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you so much.

It's good to see you. It's great to have you on the show. Now, when you won your election back in

2017 to become a state legislator in Virginia. You were seen across America

...