A transgender senator angrily walked away from the Virginia Senate chamber on Monday after he was referred to as “sir.”

Sen. Danica Roem (D-VI), who is the first transgender person to serve in the Virginia legislature, was referred to as the biological male he is by Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears during a general session.

It started when Roem asked Sears about a piece of legislation.

“Madam President, how many votes would it take to pass this bill with the emergency clause?” he asked.

“That would be four-fifths, Senator,” Sears said in response.

“And what would be the exact number of that, Madam President?” the lawmaker asked further, to which Sears responded, “Yes, sir, that would be 32.”

After that, Roem was reportedly heard dropping his microphone and seen storming out of the chamber. He also did not cast any vote in the roll call vote later.

Sears also made it clear later in the session that Roem was upset about something she said.

“I upset Sen. Roem. Let it be known I am not here to upset anyone. I am here to do the job the people of Virginia have called me to do, and that is to treat everyone with respect and dignity. I myself have at times not been afforded that same respect and dignity,” she stated.

While she did not specifically apologize to Roem for referring to him as “sir,” Sears added, “But in this body, as long as I am president of the Senate and by the grace of God, I will be treated with respect and dignity, and I will treat everyone else with respect and dignity. It is never my intention to make anyone offended, and I hope that others would consider that they would try not to offend me as well. We are all equal under the law. And so I apologize, I apologize, I apologize, and I would hope, I would hope, that everyone would understand there is no intent to offend but that we would also give each other the ability to forgive each other.”

In conclusion, she said, “I have seen us conduct ourselves in ways that we would not expect of our own children or nieces or nephews, and so I would hope that we would take this opportunity to be kind to each other, to be gracious to each other, to be about the people’s business.”