Democrats in the Virginia state Senate derailed a hearing on Monday after the state’s lieutenant governor absentmindedly responded “yes sir” to an inquiry from deep-voiced Sen. Danica Roem, a man who believes he is a woman.
“Madam president, how many votes would it take to pass this bill with the emergency clause?” Rohm asked Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears, a Republican, about a mundane bill that was being voted on.
“That would be four-fifths,” replied Sears, who as lieutenant governor presides over the Senate.
“And what would be the exact number for that madam president?” Rohm added.
“Yes, sir, that would be 32,” Sears said as she looked through papers. “Those in favor of that motion shall record their votes aye,” she said, calling the vote.
Roem stormed out and missed the vote. A shout could be heard as he was leaving, though it wasn’t clear who made the sound or what it said.
After the vote, Sears recognized Sen. Ghazala Hashmi, whose turn it was to describe the next bill. But Hashmi would not speak. Several Democrat senators began leaving the room. Sen. Scott Surovell then said, “I think I’d ask that we take a recess for five minutes.”
Seven minutes later, the body reconvened, and Sears said, “The chair again recognizes Sen. Hashmi, the senator from Chesterfield.” Hashmi again refused to speak, and Sears put the Senate back in recess.
Three minutes later, the hearing resumed, and Sears appeared irritated but measured.
“I said something that upset Sen. Roem. Let it be known I am not here to upset anyone. I am here to do the job that the people of Virginia have called me to do and that is to treat everyone with respect and dignity. I myself have at times not been afforded that same respect and dignity, but in this body and as long as I am president of the Senate and by the grace of God, I will be treated with respect and dignity and I will treat everyone else with respect and dignity.”
She said she frequently calls people by the wrong names, noting that she had just mistakenly put “the House” into recess instead of the Senate. “I apologize. And I would hope that everyone would understand there is no intent to offend.”
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Hashmi finally discussed the bill.
The Democratic Party of Virginia refused to accept Sears’ apology, writing on X, “We will not forget this smear.”
Earlier this month, Hashmi’s education committee killed Sage’s Law, a bill passed by the House of Delegates last session that would prevent schools from hiding a child’s gender transition from their parents. It is named after Sage, a girl who was trafficked from rural Virginia to Baltimore and raped by a registered sex offender after going through trouble at school that her parents knew nothing about, and after school staff allegedly repeatedly encouraged her to transition. After the FBI rescued her from the sex trafficker, Baltimore placed her into a group home full of Baltimore’s roughest male youths. After her mother rescued her, she later said she was not actually transgender.
