ARLINGTON — LGBTQ Democratic Virginia state legislators Danica Roem, Adam Ebbin, and Rozia Henson headlined an Out for Harris coalition launch party on Thursday at Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant in Arlington, Va.

Following remarks by Freddie Lutz, owner and namesake of the landmark 23-year-old LGBTQ establishment, the speakers highlighted Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s extensive track records of advancing LGBTQ rights while also stressing the urgency of get-out-the-vote efforts with just a few weeks remaining before early ballots will be cast in Virginia.

The lawmakers also shared reflections on their time as LGBTQ officeholders who each has made history with their elected positions: Roem, as the country’s first transgender state legislator, Ebbin, as the first LGBTQ representative in the Virginia house of Delegates, and Henson, as the Virginia General Assembly’s first gay Black man.

“A historic first is first but not the last,” Roem said, adding that these wins often come with challenges, too — as Ebbin, her colleague in the state senate, experienced in the time between his groundbreaking election in 2003 and the LGBTQ representation seen in the state house today, with a total of nine out lawmakers now comprising Virginia’s LGBTQ legislative caucus.

“When you put yourself out there, you wonder at what point the reinforcements are going to arrive,” she said, adding, with a smirk, “or if the closeted members who you’re serving with would just come out already.”

Roem then shared her own coming out journey, starting with her coming of age in Northern Virginia. Freddie’s was the only spot that welcomed LGBTQ young people in the ’90s and 2000s, she said, and “the first place that I felt safe to be out in public as her.”

Later, in 2004, Roem explained how she was venturing out with her hair swept across her face because, at the time, she thought, “I don’t want to be recognized; I don’t want anyone to know.” Meanwhile, Roem said, “across the country, there was a newly elected district attorney” who learned the mayor of San Francisco had blessed same-sex marriage and volunteered herself to help however she could.

Kamala Harris officiated some of the first gay and lesbian weddings, “putting herself right out there,” Roem said — stressing that John Kerry and John Edwards, the Democratic Party’s 2004 presidential ticket, were opposed to same-sex marriage, as was the rest of the party.

However, she said, “For those folks in elected office who put themselves out there, people like Kamala Harris did it 20 years ago, not because it was politically popular. Prop 8 would pass four years later. Not because it was convenient, but because it was right.”

After she became a state legislator, Roem first met Harris, then a U.S. senator, at a Human Rights Campaign event, and “she tells me, hey, just remember, keep shoulders down, chin up, and remember you are exactly where you’re meant to be.”

“Five years later,” Roem said, “I’m exactly where I’m meant to be, because I’m here with y’all at Freddie’s, and this face is not being hidden by my hair unless I am head-banging” to heavy metal music “because I am not going back.”

“We are not going back,” she added, “and we sure as hell are not going back to a time when the Trump administration was kicking transgender military members out of the service, banning trans troops who displayed more courage and sense of self of service than their then- commander-in-chief ever has or ever could.”

“And now, on the ballot this fall, we have friends,” Roem said. “We aren’t where we were 20 years ago, where we’re having to vote strategically; we have our allies on the ballot for president and vice president this fall, with Vice President Harris and with Governor Walz.”

Ebbin began his remarks by acknowledging the “large number of LGBTQ appointees in the administration” who were in attendance in their personal capacity. “I want to thank them for their work every day,” he said.

“When I first ran for office 21 years ago, we were not nearly as visible, we were not nearly as organized, and above all, we didn’t have leaders who always had our backs,” Ebbin said. “There were no other LGBT people in the General Assembly building when I got there, and now, with the help of Delegate Henson, we have a nine-member LGBTQ caucus.”

“You can understand why, as a Virginian, I feel passionately about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” he said. “They will carry our pro-LGBT Virginia values not just across the country, but all the way to the White House.”

During Ebbin’s remarks, an audience member interrupted with questions about the U.S. Senate Democrats who voted for the National Defense Authorization Act despite the funding package’s inclusion of anti-LGBTQ riders, and the Kids Online Safety Act, legislation sponsored by U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

He replied, “I’m in the Virginia Senate. I’m going to not do questions right now,” offering to talk after he stepped off the stage. The heckler persisted, raising that $30 billion was allocated for weapons, likely a reference to the supply of arms to Ukraine, when Ebbin said, “I’m not in the U.S. Senate.”

Ebbin continued, “before any state in the union legalized gay marriage, San Francisco D.A. Kamala Harris took the bold step of officiating LGBT weddings back in early 2004 — and keep in mind, this was at a time when here in Virginia, we’re fighting off some horrific” legislation including efforts to ban adoption by same-sex parents and the formation of gay-straight alliance clubs in schools, which were ultimately defeated.

“Over Kamala Harris’s entire career, she’s been a national leader for LGBTQ rights,” Ebbin said. “She marched in Pride parades not just in San Francisco, but as a U.S. senator and as vice president of the United States, several times, and that is powerful.”

“And then when we turn to her running mate, in 1999, Tim Walz was a teacher and a football coach at Mankato West High School, and he stepped up to advise the Gay Straight Alliance to protect gay kids from being bullied,” Ebbin said.

Walz was “there for high school kids in a red rural place, and in 2006, when he stepped up to run for Congress, he was advised not to pick a position on gay marriage, but he stepped up and he did,” he said. “He was there for us. Then on the flip side, we look at Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, who’ve not only shown us who they are but they’ve written a whole playbook, Project 2025, which is one of the most anti-LGBTQ agendas ever published.”

Ebbin added, “as Maya Angelou reminded us, “the Republican ticket is telling us exactly who they are. So, we should believe them and make sure our friends and neighbors believe them.”

The state senator was also heckled by pro-Palestine protesters who were kicked out for the disruption.

Henson began his brief remarks by telling the audience, “my job here is just to make sure we emphasize the importance of you organizing together, getting in your community, hosting teas, hosting events just like this, in order to make sure we get Kamala Harris to the White House.”

“Without you all setting the expectations and doing the groundwork, I probably would not have been the first openly gay Black state representative,” he said.

Henson thanked Ebbin for his mentorship and friendship, and for his leadership as the first out member of the Virginia General Assembly in its 400-year history. Introducing the state senator, Henson added that but for his help and guidance, “marriage equality would not be in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”