Republican politician films herself shouting abuse at transgender woman in bathroom
A Republican candidate has live-streamed herself harassing a transgender woman.
Jazmina Saavedra, who is running as a Republican in the California’s 44th Congressional district, broadcast the shocking incident on Facebook Live.
The candidate, who is also a spokesperson for the group ‘Latinos For Trump’, filmed herself shouting abuse at a transgender woman who was using the bathroom in a Denny’s restaurant.
Saavedra – who appears to have involved herself in the incident after another customer complained – tells her audience: “I’m trying to use the ladies’ room, and there is a man here saying that he’s a lady. This guy insists he’s a lady.”
Entering the bathroom with the camera on, she then shouts at the woman: “Why you using the ladies’ room?
“You invading my privacy because I’m a woman. You violated my right, you sick [sic], you stupid sick.”
Saavedra then waits outside the toilets to ambush the trans woman with the camera, adding: “I want to wait. I want to see him getting out of the room.
“This is so stupid… in California, how they let people say ‘it’s a lady’. He’s a man telling me that he’s a lady.
“This is so stupid in California. This is what the politicians, the sick politicians, approve. They put us in danger, a woman like me, trying to use the restroom with a man inside.”
When the trans woman leaves the toilet, Saavedra confronts them, calling them a “stupid guy”, adding: “Next time use the men’s room, or nobody’s room.”
She tells the audience: “This is what happens in California, they allow a man who thinks he’s a lady into the ladies’ room. They putting in danger the family. This is insane. This is unbelievable.”
In a Facebook post she writes: “As your next Congress woman I will fight to get our right to have a ladies room just for us back. Vote for Jazmina for U.S. Congress 44 District. California June 5.”
Saavedra’s Democratic opponent, Rep. Nanette Barragan, condemned the video.
Barragan told the Daily Beast: “I was appalled by the treatment that this woman received for simply trying to use the restroom.
“Everyone has the right to their own identity, and the right not to be discriminated against for who they are.”
Republicans have previously been accused of scaremongering over the issue.
A GOP-supporting PAC in 2015 put out an ad depicting the rape of a little girl, blaming it on a Democratic “bathroom plan”.
The clip has been deployed by several different right-wing groups in elections across a string of US states, suggesting it is part of a broader smear strategy.
