May 18 (UPI) — A Republican candidate for Congress filmed herself confronting a transgender woman who was using the woman’s restroom at a Denny’s restaurant in Los Angeles.
Jazmina Saavedra, who is running for Congress in California’s 44th district, posted the encounter on Facebook this week. In the video, Saavedra holds her phone with a selfie stick and walks into the restroom as the woman was using a toilet inside a stall.
“There is a man here saying that he’s a lady,” Saavedra says in the video. “There’s a few different customers trying to use the restroom, but this man insists he’s a lady.”
“I’m just using the restroom and you’re invading my privacy,” the woman says.
“No, you’re invading my privacy because I’m a woman and I deserve to use the ladies room!” Saavedra shouts.
Saavedra eventually leaves the restroom, but waits outside with her phone filming until the woman comes out. The two exchange more words before the woman leaves the Denny’s.
“This is what’s happening in California,” Saavedra goes on to say in the video. “They allowed a man who thinks he’s a lady to get in the ladies room and puts in danger the family.”
Saavedra is running against incumbent Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragan, D-Calif., in the Los Angeles area district.
In a statement to KABC-TV, Barragan criticized Saavedra’s actions.
“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,” Barragan said.
