Virginia’s Republican lieutenant governor gave a strange apology speech Monday, shortly after misgendering a trans lawmaker in the state’s upper chamber.
The incident began with Democratic state Sen. Danica Roem asking Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears a question about the number of votes required for a bill to pass. “Yes sir, that would be 32,” Earle-Sears replied, prompting Roem to put down her microphone and walk out of the chamber.
Earle-Sears initially refused to apologize, according to the Petersburg newspaper The Progress-Index. After two recesses, the lieutenant governor did address the issue after acknowledging she’d “said something that upset Senator Roem.”
