WATCH: Winsome Sears Calls Transgender Lawmaker ‘Sir’, Chaos EXPLODES

An explosive situation unfolded in the Virginia state legislature on Tuesday after Lt. Governor Winsome Sears accidentally referred to a transgender state senator as “sir,” prompting the lawmaker to leave the podium and storm from the chamber.

The interaction was captured on the body’s closed-circuit television station during deliberations over a routine bill on appointments to the state Board of Medicine. What should have been a sleepy affair quickly became acidic after the state senator, Danica Roem, became triggered by Sears’ disregard for preferred pronouns.

“How many votes would it take to pass this bill with this emergency clause?” Roem asks.

“That would be four-fifths, Senator,” Sears replied.

WATCH:

“And what would be the exact number for that, Madam President?” she asks.

“Yes sir, that would be 32,” Sears said.

Roem’s microphone suddenly goes silent as the camera captures a wide-angle view of the chamber while Roem heads for the exit.

Lt. Gov. Sears, a Republican, stood at the Speaker’s Chair following the vote to remind her colleagues she did not intend to insult anyone but was simply trying to conduct the Commonwealth’s routine business.

“I am not here to upset anyone,” she said, pointing around the room. “I am here to do the job that the people of Virginia have called me to do, and that is to treat everyone with respect and dignity.”

Sears, who is Black, reminded her colleagues that she has not always been afforded “that same respect and dignity.”

“As long as I am President of this body, by the grace of God, I will be treated with the respect and dignity, and I will treat everyone else with respect and dignity.”

Roem, a 39-year-old Democrat who represents a liberal district covering the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, did not respond to multiple media inquiries asking for thoughts on Sears’ apology.

Misgendering, even innocuously, has been frequently wielded as a cudgel against others who liberal activists claim are not respecting the preferred genders of transgender individuals. The cultural flash point has spared a larger debate about the accommodations that society should make for a population comprised of no more than 1.6 million Americans, according to recent estimates. Comedian Dave Chappelle, who has faced numerous calls for cancellation, has repeatedly mocked transgender accommodations in his stand-up specials, in some cases drawing in new fans while cashing in on his multi-program deals with Netflix. Bud Light, which partnered with a transgender influencer last year, is still digging out from underneath an avalanche of criticism for its decision to alienate large swaths of its blue-collar, conservative base of beer drinkers.