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Xfinity internet required. Actual speeds vary. From KQED. Welcome back to forum. I'm Scott Schaefer in Formina Kim, and for the rest of the hour,

I'm joined by a woman whose election to the Virginia General Assembly,

that's what they call their state legislature,

stunned the world of politics in Virginia and beyond.

Not only did she become the first openly trans person elected to a state legislature, she defeated a Republican who bragged about being the state's chief homophobe, who had held the seat for more than a quarter century.

Danica Rome has since been re-elected to that seat twice, and she's written all about her unusual path to public office in her new memoir.

It's titled Burn the Page, A True Story of Torching

Doubts, Blazing Trails, and Igniting Change. Danica Rom, welcome to Forum. Thank you so much, Scott.

It's good to see you. Well, you write in the intro to your book that you've written this

for the person you were in 2016. Now, that was only six years ago. So who was that person? Describe her.

So in 2016, I was under-employed is maybe the best way to say it. I was working for $15 an hour,

for 30 hours a week with no benefits as the news editor of a community newspaper over in Montgomery

County, Maryland, right over the river from where I live in Virginia.

And on the weekend to make ends meet, I was a food delivery driver for $5 an hour plus tip from an Afghan Kabobhouse over in Arlington.

And I was driving a 92 Dodge Shadow.

It had more rust than paint.

...