Several lawmakers condemned a racist sign targeting Virginia’s Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, who is the Republican candidate running to be the state’s next governor.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and Rep. Burgess Owens (R-UT) were among the lawmakers who spoke out after a protesters sign attacking Earle-Sears — over her opposition to Arlington Public Schools’ policy regarding transgender identifying students using bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice, went viral.
One side of the sign said, “Hey Winsome, you have a gender neutral bathroom in your house.” The other side contained the words, “Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom then blacks can’t share my water fountain.”
Protesters organized a rally and gathered outside of the Arlington School Board meeting as Earle-Sears spoke in opposition of “Arlington Public Schools’ transgender locker room and bathroom policies that allow students the option to use bathrooms and locker rooms based on chosen gender identity,” according to ABC7 News.
“I have sat where you are sitting, and I will tell you what is happening in our schools is just wrong,” Earle-Sears told the school board. It’s dangerous, it’s insane, and it has to stop. Here’s the truth: there are two sexes: boys and girls.”
The demonstrators outside the board meeting supported the school board’s policy that allows students to use bathrooms and locker rooms at school based on their chosen gender identity.
“The hypocrisy of the liberal left on display again,” Youngkin wrote in a post on X. “Winsome is so much bigger than this idiocy.”
“This kind of garbage has no place in America,” Kemp wrote in a post on X.
“My family lived and survived Jim Crow and now the Left is cosplaying it,” Scott wrote in a post on X.
“As a kid growing up in the Jim Crow South, I was told which water fountain to use,” Owens wrote in a post. “This Left is so desperate to force boys into girls’ bathrooms that they’ll even exploit the evils of racism to do it.”
“The stupidity of the sign speaks for itself,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wrote in a post on X. “But where are the leading Democrat voices commenting on this message? Don’t hide. Do you agree with her or not?”
In a post on X, Earle-Sears expressed that she was “disgusted, but not surprised.” Earle-Sears added that “there is no place for this disgusting hatred in our Commonwealth.”
“I’m disgusted, but not surprised,” Earle-Sears wrote. “This is the ‘tolerant’ left Abigail Spanberger defends. I’m the sitting Lieutenant Governor, second in command in the former Capitol of the confederate states. I’m an immigrant, a Marine, and above all, a human being. There is no place for this disgusting hatred in our Commonwealth. Anyone who doesn’t condemn this sign is complicit in approving it.”
Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D), who is Earle-Sears’s Democrat opponent in Virginia’s gubernatorial race, described the “sign displayed in Arlington” as being “racist and abhorrent.”
“As I said yesterday, the sign displayed in Arlington last night was racist and abhorrent,” Spanberger wrote in a post on X. “Many Virginians remember the segregated water fountains (and buses and schools and neighborhoods) of Virginia’s recent history. And no matter the intended purpose or tone and no matter how much one might find someone else’s beliefs objectionable, to threaten a return of Jim Crow and segregation to a Black woman is unacceptable. Full stop.”
“The words on this sign call up the pain of racism, segregation, and Jim Crow-era ugliness,” Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D), who is the Democrat nominee for Lt. Gov. wrote in a post on X. “These sentiments are unacceptable. We each have a responsibility to move our communities to unity and to reject all forms of bigotry.”
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