A California woman live-streamed her confrontation with a transgender person using the women’s restroom at a Denny’s restaurant.
Jamina Saavedra, who is running for a congressional seat in California’s 44th District, posted the video to Facebook Tuesday in which she can be seen walking toward the restroom and filming the door of a bathroom stall.
“That guy violated my right to use the ladies room here, and he’s saying he’s a lady. Stupid guy,” Saavedra says in the viral footage. “This is so stupid — in California, how they let people say… It’s a man, saying he’s a lady, he’s using the ladies’ room.”
Saavedra then waits outside the restroom, positioning her camera to face the door.
Hidden inside a stall as Saavedra films in the bathroom, the transgender argues , “I was using the toilet – how was I invading your privacy?”
After a few minutes, footage shows a manager escorting the individual out of the bathroom.
“We need to stop those crazy … people in power,” Saavedra says to the camera as the person leaves the Denny’s. “We cannot allow those things. We need to respect the family. We need to respect women and men, separate. We cannot put them together in the same restroom.”
Saavedra claimed she was prepared to defend herself had the altercation turned violent.
“I was with my pepper spray ready and I called the manager so he helped me,” she says. “How can I be with a man inside of the ladies’ room just because he thinks he’s a lady? This is unbelievable. Only in California this happens.”
Saavedra’s opponent, Democrat incumbent Nanette Barragán, condemned the video.
“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,” Barragán said.
When Target announced that it would welcome transgender customers to use any bathroom or fitting room that matches their gender identity two years ago, shopper traffic declined for the first time in years. As a result, the company installed more single-occupancy bathrooms in all its stores to give critics of the policy more privacy costing the retail giant Target $20 million to install.
