We keep hearing that Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears “apologized” to State Sen. Danica Roem, the first trans woman elected to the State Senate, after having also been the first trans woman elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, after referring to the Northern Virginia Democrat as “sir” on the Senate floor this week.
Watch for yourself: sure didn’t feel like an apology.
It took Earle-Sears, if you hadn’t guessed this already, yep, she’s a Republican, two Senate recesses to get out whatever contrition she wanted to pretend to have.
“Let it be known, I am not here to upset anyone,” Earle-Sears said, in an obvious lecturing tone, when she finally addressed the “sir” nonsense.
“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. “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.”
You saw what she did there, right?
Earle-Sears twisted the story around to make herself the victim, imparting that she “has not been afforded” respect and dignity.
Was that her way of trying to justify calling a trans woman “sir?”
Sure felt like it.
Earle-Sears, it needs to be noted here, is a history-maker herself – she is the first woman, and first woman of color, to be elected lieutenant governor in Virginia.
Credit to her for that, and for doing so as a Black Republican.
Even if you don’t agree with her politics, there’s something in her living her truth that is to be admired.
You’d think there might be some sensitivity on her part to others who have been historically marginalized, but then, you see her calling a trans woman “sir,” and it took her two breaks in Senate business to finally come around and fake an apology and in the process make it all about her.
The Republican in Earle-Sears is strong.
Roem, to her credit, has not addressed the row publicly.
It’s hard enough to be a trans woman, given the hateful things Fox News and its ilk have to say, daily, hourly, about trans people – adults, kids.
Roem has taken on the extra burden of living very publicly in the spotlight of elected office, aiming to give voice to the millions like her who just want to live their realities.
The thanks for that: “sir.”
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Chris Graham
