A black Ohio state legislator says that she has been repeatedly stopped by security screeners at the statehouse when her white colleagues have not, and was even told at one point that a guard needed to search her bag because she “didn’t look like a legislator”.

Representative Emilia Sykes told The Independent that the incidents have been occurring since she assumed office in 2015, and she believes they are related to her race and gender. The incident where she was told she does not look like a legislator — the guard later said that she does not look old enough — occurred in early 2017, but she says several encounters have followed and preceded that run-in.

“I showed my badge, I had my lapel pin on, I pointed at it and asked if I could get through without being searched. The answer was, emphatically, no,” Ms Sykes said of the early 2017 encounter. “I wasn’t hiding anything, but that was not the rule as far as I understood it to be. I was not going to let my personal affects be searched.”

Ms Sykes was arriving at the state house from nearby office buildings connected via an underground tunnel when the security guard said that they needed to search her bag. Legislators had previously been told that they could avoid searches if they showed their badge, or had a unique lapel that proved they were elected officials.

Ms Sykes was accompanied by a fellow Ohio state representative — a 65-year-old white man — who told the guard that she was an elected official, but the guard said he didn’t care. After a moment, the guard relented and did not search her bag. Ms Sykes said that she turned around moments later and demanded to know why the guard had insisted on searching her.

“He said, you know, ‘you don’t look like a legislator’. He said, 'you look too young to be a legislator’”, Ms Sykes said.

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Ms Sykes said that she was later told by the statehouse sergeant of arms that she had done everything correctly, and that she had not misunderstood the policy that should have allowed her to bypass the bag search with her badge or lapel.

When asked if she buys the argument that the guard thought she was too young, Ms Sykes dismissed the claim — she is 32, and Ohio citizens only need to be 18 to serve in the statehouse — and said that she believes her treatment reflects an attitude or expectation that politicians are middle-aged white men.

“I don’t buy that at all. I’m not the youngest in the general assembly. I haven’t been 18 in a while,” Ms Sykes said. “I am well beyond the minimum age requirement. And, again, that’s not an acceptable response. There was nothing in the security memorandum that says you have to show your badge and your pin and look old enough.”

The Ohio general assembly sergeant at arms referred questions about these incidents to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which provides officers for security at the statehouse. A request for comment and clarification was not immediately returned to The Independent by the Ohio State Highway Patrol public information officer.

Ms Sykes said that her encounters show that there is a racist attitude towards the types of people who are in elected officials, even though women like her show that “the face of leadership includes black women. It has included black women for a long time … and it will continue to include black women”.