Virginia Delegate Bob Marshall, a
Republican from Prince William County, said this week that he would
not refer to his opponent Danica Roem, a transgender woman, using
female pronouns because she defies the “laws of nature” at a
“fundamental level.”
Marshall, a vocal opponent of LGBT
rights who is serving his 13th term, earlier this year
introduced a
bill that sought to prohibit transgender people from using the
bathroom of their choice.
If elected on Tuesday, Roem, a
journalist, would become the state's first openly transgender elected
official. The Washington Post described the campaign as
possibly Marshall's “toughest reelection battle.”
During an appearance Friday on Sandy
Rios in the Morning, Marshall told host Sandy Rios that his
opponent was living in a “fantasy.”
“It is not a civil right to
masquerade your fantasies as reality,” Marshall said. “But
standing up to this is somewhat difficult because you get called all
kinds of names. And if you’re going to be shying away because
someone calls you a bigot or a transphobe or whatever it is, it
probably is not something that you should attempt.”
Marshall added that he intended to
stand his ground.
“I’ve drawn a line. I’m not
leaving it, because I don’t make the laws of nature but I think I
understand them, at least at this fundamental level. I never flunked
biology, so I’m not going to call a man a woman, period,”
Marshall
said.
Earlier this month, former
Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Roem's campaign.
(Related: Social
conservatives running anti-transgender robocalls against Danica
Roem.)