SACRAMENTO, Calif._Gina Roberts, a champion target shooter and supporter of President Donald Trump, says she wishes everyone would take a deep breath and relax about the controversy over transgender students using bathrooms.
Roberts was one of hundreds of GOP loyalists attending the California Republican Party convention in Sacramento this weekend and almost assuredly, she surmised, the party's first transgender delegate.
At a Saturday gathering of tea party supporters, Roberts stood up and asked how they could all work together without all the "background noise," a suggestion that appeared to be well received by other speakers there.
Beforehand, she told the Los Angeles Times that Trump's critics overreacted to the administration's decision to cease a federal mandate, implemented by President Barack Obama, directing schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms and other facilities that match their gender identities.
Roberts called the Obama policy heavy-handed, saying threats of federal legal action put conservatives on the defensive and escalated tensions.
"I've been using the bathroom for 35 years for the gender I presented, and I'm not exactly a small person who isn't noticed," said Roberts, 62. "I've never had a problem."
Roberts also criticized those who want to ban transgender students from using the bathroom that matches their gender identity, saying it was ignorant to believe they are sexual "predators" who should be feared.
"I think transgender rights need to be considered civil rights," Roberts said. "Would you require black people to use separate bathrooms?"
Roberts said she is confident that the Trump administration will work diligently to protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination, saying Vice President Mike Pence made that exact promise.
Roberts is chair of the San Diego Log Cabin Republicans, a chapter of the nation's largest gay GOP political organization, and a longtime engineering consultant from Valley Center. Roberts said she underwent her transition surgery just five weeks ago.
During the presidential campaign, Roberts initially supported Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina. When Trump won the nomination, she said it was an easy decision to support him because she thought Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was unfit for office.
Roberts, a board member of the San Diego County Gun Owners organization, saw Clinton as a threat to gun rights. She said she was also outraged by Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of State.
"I hated Hillary," Roberts said. "I was in the national security field. Had I done that, I would have been in jail for 35 years."
