Republican Congressional Candidate Kicks Trans Woman Out of Denny's Bathroom

From the Party of Lincoln to the Party of Bigots.
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This week, long shot Republican congressional candidate Jazmina Saavedra broadcast a Facebook live video from a Denny's in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, where she stalked a trans woman into the ladies' room and harassed her until she left.

Saavedra, a Trump supporter who is running to unseat Democratic Congresswoman Nanette Diaz Barragán (CA-44), used her selfie stick to broadcast the video, claiming that a trans woman (who has not been identified) was "invading her privacy" by using the "wrong" bathroom at the restaurant, which does not have a gender-neutral restroom. A manager was already present outside the stall because, according to a statement from the restaurant, he had observed "drug paraphernalia" on the bathroom floor. 

"You guys are harassing me and I'm just trying to use the ladies' room," the trans woman says from behind the stall when Saavedra bursts in with her selfie stick and phone, from which she filmed the event. "You're invading my privacy."

"You're invading my privacy because I'm a woman!" Saavedra snaps back.

"I'm in the toilet! How am I invading your privacy? Do your homework before you speak, lady!" the trans woman responds.

Saavedra then did a lap around the restaurant, complaining that the trans woman had violated her rights, before going back to the ladies' room door to await her exit. 

"This is so stupid," she mutters. "In California, this is what the politicians, the sick politicians...approved. They're putting in danger a woman like me and some other customers who are trying to use the ladies' room with a man inside saying that he's a guy. Stupid guy. He's coming. I want to see that." She continues filming for an additional 3-4 minutes as the trans woman leaves the ladies' room, accusing Saavedra of stalking her, and is escorted out of the restaurant by the manager.

Saavedra concludes the video with a long speech, interrupted by laughter, where she reveals that she had a stun gun and pepper spray on her because "you never know what crazy people you might find in a public restaurant," adding that she made the video "[to] stop those crazy people in power. We cannot allow those things. We need to respect the family...We cannot put [them] together in the same restroom."

Saavedra, laughing into the camera.

Saavedra, laughing into the camera.

The anonymous trans woman, if she comes forward, is within her rights to press charges, as Saavedra's video violated California law. According to section 632 of the state's penal code, a confidential recording cannot be distributed without the consent of all involved. But like the rest of her GOP brethren, Saavedra couldn't be bothered to apologize. In a statement given to The Advocate, she claimed that harassing this woman had "nothing to do with the LGBT agenda, he’s a man, simple as that, we were afraid to be in the bathroom...I don’t even know if he was a transgender."

Apart from the "pronoun trouble," as Daffy Duck would have it, Mrs. Saavedra conveniently left out that trans persons are included in the LGBT acronym, proving that ignorance and bigotry go hand in hand.

Here is the full video, if you wish to view it. Also, here is Congresswoman Barragán's campaign page, and the Los Angeles LGBT Center, located a few miles away from the Denny's where this took place. Both accept donations.