RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Monday’s floor proceedings in the Virginia Senate were disrupted when Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) referred to Sen. Danica Roem (D-Prince William), a transgender woman, as “sir.” Normal Senate activities did not resume until Earle-Sears apologized for her mistake.
On Monday, Feb. 26, during the discussion of House Bill 592, Roem asked a clarifying question about the legislation. When answering her, Earle-Sears said “yes, sir.”
Roem, the first transgender person to be elected to the Virginia General Assembly, put her microphone down and left the Senate chamber without a word.
The vote for HB 592 proceeded with all Senators casting their votes except for Roem. Following this, multiple Senators can be seen on the session recording leaving their seats to exit the chamber behind Roem.
When Earle-Sears attempted to call upon Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield) regarding the next bill on the docket, Hashmi did not speak. Earle-Sears continued to address Hashmi multiple times before Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) stood to ask for a recess. That request was granted.
8News reached out to Hashmi to ask for her perspective on what happened.
“As soon as the Lieutenant Governor misgendered Sen. Danica Roem, our side of the Senate floor reacted with a great deal of consternation,” Hashmi said. “Many of us caught the use of the word ‘sir’ in response to the Senator’s question and wanted the issue of misgendering to be addressed immediately and directly.”
Hashmi said she did not know why the Lieutenant Governor continued to call upon her, given the situation.
“I was deferring to our Majority Leader, Sen. Scott Surovell, and he was in the process of formally requesting that the Senate be at ease so that we could address this concern,” she said. “Because [Earle-Sears] is on the raised dias in front of us, I assume that she could see that I and many of my colleagues were visibly reacting to the language she used and that I was waiting for the Majority Leader to be recognized so that he could make his motion. It is not clear to me why [Earle-Sears] kept calling my name.”
Surovell told 8News that he believed Earle-Sears offering Roem an apology for what happened was important, hence calling the recess to “give her a chance to figure out what to say.”
The Senate returned from its recess multiple minutes later but remained that way only temporarily. Earle-Sears attempted to address Hashmi again and Hashmi continued not to speak, prompting Earle-Sears to put the Senate at ease.
According to Hashmi, during these recesses, Democratic leadership spoke with Earle-Sears and requested she make a public apology. Hashmi said Republican leadership was also present during this exchange.
The Senate remained at ease for another few minutes before Earle-Sears returned to speak on what happened, saying that she understood she had upset Roem.
“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,” Earle-Sears said before the Senate. “I, myself, at times, have 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.”
Earle-Sears went on to explain that she has often called people by the wrong name. She also indicated that, just a few minutes before this, she had motioned to put “the House” into recess.
“It is never my intention to make anyone offended and I hope that others would consider that they would try not to offend me as well,” Earles-Sears said.
Earle-Sears then offered her apology.
“I apologize, I apologize, I apologize,” she said. “And I would hope that everyone would understand, there is no intent to offend — but that we will also give each other the ability to forgive each other.”
8News reached out to Earle-Sears and her office for comment, but have not heard back as of the time of reporting.
At some point following these events, Roem can be seen on the session recording as having returned to her seat in the chamber. It is not obvious when she returned or if she was present during Earle-Sears’ apology.
8News reached out to Roem’s office about this incident and was provided the following statement:
“Senator Roem’s priority is and has always been to serve her constituents first. She remains focused on her legislative agenda of fixing roads, and feeding kids. This session is centered around ending food insecurity and improving transportation safety. After the Senate floor session today, she spent some additional time working to advance her bill that would increase public awareness of federal supplemental nutrition assistance programs like WIC to ensure eligible Virginians are taking advantage of such benefits.
Senator Roem will continue prioritizing her service to the 30th district for the remainder of this legislative session.”
Office of Sen. Dancia Roem (D-Prince William)
