The 2017 general elections were a sign of change. Yes, new leaders bring change, but many of the leaders elected, a few in particular, are the faces of firsts, of history making and of a shift in respect for transgender people in our country.

Tyler Titus, father of two, won a seat on the Erie City School Board in Pennsylvania. He became the first openly transgender person elected to office in the Keystone State.

Andrea Jenkins was elected to Minneapolis City Council. She holds two titles of firsts: she is the first transgender person to hold a seat in a major city’s governing body, and she is the first transgender person of color to be elected to any office in the United States.

Danica Roem, reporter, stepmom, and heavy metal rocker, became the first transgender state representative elected in Virginia and in the United States.

Roem’s victory carries the most political weight and is the biggest middle finger to misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia in our nation. Not only is Roem a transgender woman, but she beat Bob Marshall, the 25-year incumbent who was a proud anti-LGBTQ lawmaker. She defeated a man who tried to pass a bathroom bill in Virginia that would have prevented her from using a public bathroom consistent with her gender identity.

During Roem’s victory speech, she said this: “To every person who’s ever been singled out, who’s ever been stigmatized, who’s ever been the misfit, who’s ever been the kid in the corner, who’s ever needed someone to stand up for them when they didn’t have a voice of their own because there was no one with them, this one is for you.”

Danica Roem’s victory was a huge win for the LGBTQ community, but I want to give credit where credit is due. The T in the LGBTQ rainbow is sometimes forgotten. Roem will not just fight for equality, but she is also a beacon of hope to all transgender people who feel like they have been ignored. She is someone our transgender youth can look to and know they can and will be seen and heard and respected, too.

Danica Roem is a woman I can use as an example when my own transgender daughter needs inspiration or to hear a story about someone like herself.

Many people don’t believe there is such a thing as being transgender. Many people don’t think transgender people deserve rights to live equally or should have the right to live at all. But last night, voters spoke. Instead of focusing on someone’s gender identity and the transition they made to become the outward expression of that identity, people looked at the names on the ballot box and voted for the person who would get shit done.

When Titus, Jenkins, and Roem start their new elected roles, they will make history. They will rewrite the way things have always been done. Their victories send a very clear and important message: transgender people were trusted and respected and voted for because they were seen as people who were the best candidates for the job. They were seen as people.

Those people happen to be transgender. They are changing the narrative to one our country needs. They are giving diversity a voice. They are protecting LGBTQ rights. They are changing the future for our transgender youth.