this is bbc news, the headlines: president biden and the first lady have visited uvalde in texas, to meet families who lost children in last week's school shooting. mr biden paid his respects by a memorial site at the robb elementary school. the justice department has announced it will investigate police delays in confronting the gunman. president zelensky has visited the frontline in eastern ukraine for the first time since russia invaded. after witnessing the devastation in the city of kharkiv, he greeted frontline troops. tens of thousands of people have marched through jerusalem's muslim quarter, on an annual parade organised by nationalist jewish israelis.

some made their way through the narrow alleys of an arab neighbourhood, waving flags and chanting slogans. the palestinian red cross said more than 70 people were injured in clashes. now on bbc news stephen sackur is in washington with hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk from washington. i'm stephen sackur. the received political wisdom here is that economic issues pretty much decide elections, and that may be true in this midterm election year because of a dramatic spike in the cost of living. and yet, there is a sense here that right now, values and culture are at the centre of the political argument. my guest today is danica roem, a democrat and the first transgender person to take a seat in a state legislature.

what does her story tell us about america's culture wars? danica roem, welcome to hardtalk. 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... mm—hm. ..you were seen across america as a trailblazer. do you still feel like that trailblazer? well, so, here's the thing. i don't try to put, you know, that title to myself. when other people ascribe it to me, that's fine. that's their interpretation. myjob is to make sure that i'm fixing route 28, that i'm taking care of health insurance for my constituents and really taking care of those day—to—day basics. and, while i'm doing that, if i'm able to inspire other

trans people to step up and run for office, great. and when i was sworn in to the virginia house of delegates onjanuary 10th, 2018, for my first of what's now three terms, you know, that day, i was the only out and seated trans state legislator in the country. and now, here we are, fast—forward to 2022, now there's eight of us. take me back to early 2017 and being sworn in as the first transgender elected legislator to take a seat in a state legislature. yeah. so it was... so i was... so i kicked off my first campaign onjanuary 3rd, 2017, and 53 weeks later, onjanuary 10th, 2018, that's when i was sworn in to the house of delegates, and i had to win a four—way democratic primary first in june of 2017. and then i took on a 13—term incumbent. he had been in office for 26 years — since i was seven years old — and he was the self—described chief homophobe of virginia... and i want to stop you there

because that interests me. now, you say to me, ijust wanted to prove myself as a regular politician who could deliver for my constituents on everything from roads to refuse collection, but surely... "regular" is a strong word! well, yes. surely there was a very direct personal motivation for you to take that opponent on, as a transgender person. right, well, here's the thing, you could ascribe that for any bit of my identity. you don't get too many transgender, heavy metal, you know, vocalist, reporter, step—mom, you know, vegetarian yoginis running for office, right? let alone when they're unemployed, uninsured and driving a �*92 dodge shadow that's worth $321; that's got more rust than paint. that's how i kicked off my first campaign. and part of that was also to demonstrate to people, like, hey, you know what? elected office, going to legislature, it shouldn't just be the sole domain of the rich and powerful. it's for us, too. it's for people who know what it means to work for a living and people

who know what it means to struggle when they can't get work. and in my case, after i transitioned, it became very, very hard to find a full—time job, and so i was piecemealing it. you know, i had a job for 30 hours a week for $15 an hour as the news editor of one newspaper, and on weekends, i was driving that �*92 dodge as a delivery driver, earning $5 an hour, plus tip, when i was dropping off afghan kebabs in arlington. i mean, the odds against you making it in politics were enormous, notjust because of the economic circumstances you were in at the time, but also your background, your childhood. i mean, it was very troubled. you had tragedy... i think by the age of three, yourfather had taken his own life. mm—hm. it's almost impossible to imagine how, from there, you develop the ambition to go into electoral politics. well, you know, as i wrote about in my book, burn the page, i talk about not only how my dad killed himself two

days after christmas in 1987 when i was three years old, but how my grandmother, who moved into the house, you know, about a year later, she ended up dying of parkinson's by the time i was seven years old. and so, i lost two immediate family members, you know, by the time i was seven, right? and when you have trauma, when you have loss, you have grief like that, as a kid, you try to basically compartmentalise it, if you can, so that you're not going to just allow it to just, like, you know, haunt you or daunt you, right? and in my way, ijust kind of buried things. i just chose not to think about things. but it wasn't the only source of deep mental anguish for you because as you grew up and entered teen age, it's clear, as you say in your memoir, you're very frank about it, that you looked at girls at school and you could identify with them much more than you could with the boys and you began to feel that there was something really not right about your... i knew i was... ..male identity. yeah. i knew i was trans

by the time i was ten. did you? by ten? yeah, but i was too afraid to tell anyone. i was utterly... i spent 13 years in catholic school. i spent four years at public school, 13 years at catholic school, from fourth grade through college after that. and, you know, part of why i even wrote burn the page in the first place was really to show people that it's like, hey, you know what? you can have trauma, you can have loss, you can have going through figuring out your own identity, you can go through all of that and you can still succeed because of who you are, not despite it, and not for what other people tell you you're supposed to be. and i always tell people... there's a line from st francis de sales we had to learn in high school, which is, "be who you are and be that well." i like to add to that, "and thrive because of who you are, not despite it." and, you know, it's wonderful that you're sitting here with me and you can reflect on what you went through from a position of success. but how close did you come... ..to failing? to finding that you could not and did not actually want to go

on at some points? so, i was never a suicide risk because i know first—hand from my dad, you know, how suicide destroys a family. at the same time, you know, you have to also recognise that when societal pressures are just blatantly cruel toward a lot of trans people, that suicidal ideation can be more than 40% of the trans experi—... you know, or more than 40% of trans people will experience suicidal ideation at some point. and that's not the product of a society that loves us too much, as my mentor, delegate mark levine, would say, it's a product of a society that tells us that our mere existence is wrong. and one of the things i like to push back on with that is, like, well, i'm here, and if my very existence is wrong, that's fine for you to think, but 12,077 people i represent disagreed with you when they elected me to be their state legislator in 2017 and then i earned re—election in 2019 and 2021. absolutely.

so three elections, all of them successful. yeah. here you sit as a virginia state legislator. and we can go beyond your personal story and we can look at the united states. we can look at landmark supreme court rulings which have backed the lgbtq community's right to workplace protections. we can look at legalisation of same—sex marriage and the massive change in public opinion overjust 30 years on that issue of same—sex marriage. and we could therefore conclude, from danica's story to the context that i've just outlined, this is a story of america... ..accepting of, embracing genuine equality for lgbt people. so, that's part of america, having that embrace, and it's the america that i strive to make sure actually has that voice at the table, so that we're in a position to make inclusive

public policy. there's the other part of america, though, where when i was a news reporter for the montgomery county sentinel, i had to cover two brutal homicides of young black trans women not far from here, right over in montgomery county in maryland, and one of them was in october of 2015. she was a young woman named zella ziona. she was dragged out into an alleyway and she was shot once in the head and shot once in the groin and left to die in front her screaming mother by someone who would later say in court, or basically that the court files would later show, you know, he didn't want to be seen, or he deemed her to be too flamboyant, right? and then there was another case where i had to go and cover another horrific homicide of a young woman named keyonna blakeney, and her dad crying to me on the phone months later, "i miss my baby girl, "i miss my baby girl", and knowing fully well that there are still too many people who would have gone up

to someone like him and say, "you mean your son". it's heartbreaking. and that's the reality that a lot of trans people still face. we can'tjust overlook that. so that's part of the reality. i wonder what's going on here. you know, on the one hand, you have a president who, remarkably, this last march, on i think it's called transgender visibility day, he said this to america's people. in an address, he said, "to transgender americans "of all ages, i want you to know that you are so brave, "you belong. "and...", joe biden said, "..i have your back." so, on the one hand, you've got that message from the very top, from the white house. 0n the other hand, you've got the violence, the pure hate and discrimination that you've just described. would you see that hate, that discrimination, as something of a backlash against the progressive changes that we've just discussed? so, i've always said for years, as gay rights go, trans rights will follow, and that means that as gay rights become more or less more accepted over time, that when other people

are still looking to single out and stigmatise and frankly bully people, that the next easiest target for them is going to be trans people because there are fewer of us and fewer people know that they've crossed paths with us. they have, theyjust might not know it yet, right? and so because of that, they're able to try to create an impression based on caricature, based on bad examples of certain individuals, for example, and then they're able to try to paint the entire community in a broad stroke. and so as trans people, you know, it's not necessarily fair that every single one of us has to be a good ambassador for our community. mm. it's just that that's a reality — that for every time that someone meets someone like us, we very well could be the first person who's out as trans who they know that they've met. and so when i'm going door—to—door in my district, i'm making sure that i talk to people just about whatever issues are important to them. 0ccasionally, they'll bring up trans issues at the doors but,

to be honest with you, you know what they talk to me the most about? fixing roads, about banning above—ground transmission lines between gainesville and haymarket along the 66 corridor, which we passed one of my bills to get done. no, i get it, you want to be an effective local politician. yeah. but where is american public opinion here? because i notice, and i'm sure you're much more aware of this than i am, but across america, there are state legislatures, that is, bodies which have been elected by the people... that's right. ..which are making dramatic, ambitious moves to curtail... yeah. ..lgbt rights. and it's happening in schools, it's happening on sports fields, it's happening in local laws on access to public bathrooms and toilets. mm—hm. it's happening even in the kind of medication that can be given to young people who say they want to transition. in all of these arenas, politicians elected by the people are trying to curtail lgbt rights.

well, politicians who attack their constituents shouldn't be politicians any more. and... but they are elected. this is a democracy you live in. yeah, they are. they are, and that's why i'm calling, especially in my role as executive director of emerge virginia — where myjob is to train democratic women to run for office — i'm calling on those democratic women to step up, grab a clipboard and go unseat some of these people who are trying to do that because, quite frankly, as far as i'm concerned, if you are attacking the most vulnerable people you're elected to serve, then you have no business being in public office. but the only way to deal with that is at the ballot box. and so, you know, i'm going to encourage people who want to run on inclusive platforms, where they actually put constituent service first, the people first, as opposed to... these politicians i'm talking about say they are putting their people's interests first. no, you can't. .. they say they are defending families, they are defending religion, america's christian heritage, as they would put it. let me ask you this. if you were attacking a trans kid, are you defending

the family of that trans child? if you're trying to tell a parent that the government is going to get between that child's healthcare and that doctor who's actually working with that child, are you going to say...? to be clear, because people around the world may not know this, but in certain states — i'm thinking, for example, of alabama, and i believe idaho as well — there are certain states where there has been an effort to criminalise parents... yeah. ..who seek medical help for their teenage children who say they want to transition. yeah. so not only is that wrong and we should call it out as wrong, but every time an elected official does that, that's time that they're not spending, you know, making roads more safe, dealing with mass transit that needs a tonne of funding and a tonne of attention right now. that's more time — why is it that so many of these same legislators who are targeting trans kids

voted against or don't support medicaid expansion? when they call themselves — you know, they say that they're pro—family. you want to say you're pro—family? prove it. provide health insurance for the parents and the families most in need of it right now, who you have voted against. why not demonstrate that you actually care about constituent service by making sure that all of your constituents are welcomed because of who they are, not despite it, and not for what discriminatory politicians tell them they're supposed to be? right. where do you think this argument is going? i mean, we're speaking in 2022 and, as ever in america, politics is never very far away. this is a mid—terms year. it's going to be politically crucial who wins national elections for both the us house of representatives and the senate, and some of these issues we've discussed — about gay rights, transgender rights, social conservatism versus progressive politics — these are going to play out over the next few months. where do you think the american public is right now? well, it depends which state

you're in, it depends which, you know, district and which, you know, city or county you're in, for example, which town that you're in. it's different place to place to place. but as a whole, right now, what i do know is that we have a democratic—led senate, a democratic—led house of representatives and a democratic president and some of the things that they could do that would be very helpful right now is the senate could pass the equality act, just like the house of representatives already did, and the president of the united states could instruct the national archivist to enshrine the equal rights amendment into the united states constitution — which i voted for virginia to ratify in 2020. and, by the way, i have the text of the equal rights amendment actually tattooed on my bicep. it says, "equality of rights under the law shall not be "denied or abridged by the united states "or by any state on account of sex." and by the way, discrimination on account of sexual orientation or gender identity is inherently discrimination on account of sex. that's just not me saying that either —

that's in the bostock supreme court ruling at this point. you talk about what the democrats, who, as you say, currently control the house and have a sort of 50—50, but they can get stuff through the senate if they are united. it's hard. it's hard, but they at least can. you imply the democrats should be pushing this agenda. there are people in your own party, the democratic party, who fundamentally disagree with putting a focus on these very issues. i'm going to quote to you a guy you'll be very familiar with, james carville, who is very well known in america as the adviser and strategist to bill clinton, who still voices his opinions very strongly on where the democrats should go, and he says this — "wokeness right now is a huge "problem, and everyone knows it. "it's hard to talk to anybody today — and i talk to lots "of people in my democratic party who doesn't say "the same, but they daren�*t say it out loud because they get "clobbered or cancelled. "we are suffering in the party," he says, "from faculty lounge politics."

well, i would ask you in that case that, number one, when we're actually focusing on what my platform is — you know what my slogan is for my state senate campaign campaign next year? "fixing roads, feeding kids." we — of my 32 bills signed into law since i took office onjanuary 10th, 2018, ten of them feed hungry kids. another one, by the way — actually, another two — feed hungry adults. more than 30,000 of my constituents now, or more than 30,000 people across greater prince william, including more than 6,000 of my constituents, actually have health insurance and they're not being left uninsured during a worldwide pandemic, with 654,000 virginians enrolled. how would you possibly look at that area of success and say that we've done anything wrong on that? well, i'll tell you... because here's the thing... crosstalk. right. surely, the point is this, that you are — and it's obvious from this conversation — a very committed local politician and as you said to me, you win elections with just tens of thousands of votes. i'm good at myjob and i don't leave my trans constituents

behind, either. but... equality is constituent service. ..is it possible to be both at the same time? again, it's about the debate inside your own party, the democratic party. well, according to my constituents, it is, when they've elected me three times. but what about people — again, i'm going to quote you somebody else, who is respected in the party — david shor, a very successful pollster, a consultant who, apparently, is close tojoe biden. now, he says, "we, the democrats, are on the cusp "of falling into a decade of powerlessness because we "are failing to win over non—college—educated voters, "especially white ones who, over years, have defected "to the trump—style republican party". well, you know, just a couple of weeks ago, in my role as executive director of emerge virginia — where i'm working to recruit and train democratic women to run for office — i drove four hours south—west to blacksburg, specifically so i could talk to a lot of democratic women who live in the sixth and ninth congressional districts, which are two of the most rural

parts of virginia, so i could specifically find people willing to run for office in those rural areas and knock on doors and do the work to connect with people one—on—one. because when i look at what we've done in virginia, where my vote to fix i—81, by the way, is going to quite literally save lives in rural virginia. when my vote for medicaid expansion disproportionately helps people along the i—81 corridor in those two congressional districts, by the way, make sure they have health insurance. my vote to make sure that dental coverage is actually included in medicaid is a huge deal in these communities. let's go out there and let's go talk to people about it... it seems, in a way... yeah. let's show up. ..like you're saying to me, there is a point here. progressives mustn't allow themselves to be pigeonholed as nothing but sort of woke, progressive politicians. i would say rather than getting lost in your terminology on it, how about this? show up, knock on doors, go talk to people, meet them face—to—face, ask them, "what's important to you?" go connect with quality conversations one—on—one over

and over and over again, and then go represent your constituents when they vote for you. we outsiders attempted to look at us politics and say things like, it feels more divided, more polarised on sort of cultural and social and value issues today than it has been in a long time, and there's a sense that it could be very dangerous for the fabric of this nation. do you feel that? let me ask you, is your nation any different? that's a good question. yeah. i mean, these aren'tjust american debates, but... no. that's why we're talking to each other. ..they play out across your country — in your state, virginia, and many others — with a degree of passion, some would say hate, right now, which does appear to threaten consensual values, even threaten america's democratic institutions. well, i think that what you saw onjanuary 6th, 2021, absolutely was a direct threat.

it was a direct threat to representative democracy within our republic. absolutely, it was. there was people who were quite literally staging an insurrection, in order to overthrow a lawful election, as they were chanting that they wanted to kill the vice president and the speaker of the house. that is an actual threat to democracy, yes, and we should look at it exactly as that. and, you know, what is the best thing that i can do as a legislator, by the way, in virginia? show people what it means to be a good public servant. show people what it means to actually execute good constituent services. i've had more than 30 local town halls in the greater prince william county area. the reason that i show up for my constituents is because they're my boss. i have 101,000 bosses! chuckles. and the way that i look at this is that their agenda drives my legislative agenda in richmond, which is why so many of the bills that they've asked me to carry have gotten over the finish line — regardless of whether we've had a republican governor or a democratic governor, republican—led senate, republican—led house of delegates, a democratic—led senate, democratic—led house of

delegates. i've worked with them all at this point and so, i've had to be successful in that role by making sure i'm doing the bestjob i could for them. and going back to the beginning of our conversation, you are a trailblazer, you are a successful, young, transgender woman politician... 37 is still young, yes! ..in the united states of america. chuckles. but how far could you go? you know, i talked about biden celebrating transgender visibility day. can you imagine a time when it isn'tjust a president celebrating that day, it could even be a transgender elected president of the united states — is that possible? is that a dream you have? is it a dream for me to see someone like my friend sarah mcbride, who's a state senator in delaware, actually be the person to do that? yes. i think she would be phenomenal at that. at the same time, for me, that's not my personal ambition, you know. but i guess the real point is, can you imagine an america that would be ready to embrace that concept?

i can go the fulljohn lennon on this, sure. i coudl — yeah, i can imagine, you know, someone who isjust like sarah, being able to lead, absolutely. she's a rising star in the party for a reason. she's very good at what she does and, yeah, absolutely, i could see her in federal government, for sure. danica roem, thank you very much indeed forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you so much for the invitation. hello. i'm sure it'll be all eyes on the weather forecast this week with the platinum jubilee celebrations just around the corner. the week certainly begins with some heavy showers in the forecast, some spells of sunshine in between, but those showers, driven by this area of low pressure wobbling its way westwards, and that will take up residence

across the uk as we head through the next couple of days. it'll be quite a chilly start to the morning across some southern areas, but that's where we'll see the best of the morning sunshine. quite a lot of cloud to start off for scotland and northern ireland with some patchy rain but by the afternoon, we are, essentially, all in the same boat. we'll see some spells of sunshine developing but there will also be some showers, some of which will be heavy and thundery. quite a few showers across parts of southern england, the midlands, east anglia, across this eastern side of england. maybe not as many showers across parts of wales. northern ireland, turning brighter into the afternoon, sunny spells but still scattered showers, and just 12 degrees for belfast, 11 at best in aberdeen, and these heavy showers across scotland will be quite slow moving, given we will have very light winds. now, through monday night, some of the showers will continue. the area of low pressure just sits on top of us and so, the showers just continue to circulate around, and we will see this band of cloud bringing some slightly more persistent rain, perhaps into the far west of scotland.

a bit of mist and murk across parts of scotland as well. quite a chilly start again on tuesday morning. it's another sunshine and showers day for most but we will see this area of more persistent rain dropping its way southwards into parts of northern ireland. it may well be that across wales and the south—west by the afternoon, there will be fewer showers and more in the way of sunshine, and temperatures will nudge upwards a little — 12 to 18 degrees. still some showers around on wednesday but they will increasingly become confined to northern and eastern parts. further west, more in the way of dry weather, some spells of sunshine and again, slightly warmer — 17 to maybe 20 degrees across parts of the south—east. now, as we head into the long weekend, this area of high pressure will try to settle things down, but this little weather front threatens to bring some showers in from the north—west. this low spinning to the south threatens to throw some showers across the channel islands and into southern counties of england so, certainly, there is the chance of a few showers as we head through the weekend. it should often be dry

and where we see some sunshine, it will feel relatively warm.

this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. president biden meets parents who lost children in the mass shooting at a primary school in texas. thejustice department says it will investigate police delays in confronting the gunman. a first visit to the front line since russia invaded. president zelensky visits troops in eastern ukraine as intense fighting continues in the region. translation: i'm greatly honoured to be here. - i want to thank each one of you for your great service, for risking your life for our sake, for the sake of our country. the nepalese army says it's located the wreckage of a passenger plane that went missing on sunday with 22 people on board. and heightened tensions

injerusalem — with thousands of israeli jewish nationalists