Rep. Allen Trovillion
It was with great disappointment to learn a member of
our legislature has brought
such disgrace and embarrassment to fellow legislators,
citizens and to our great state
of Florida. Your comments and statements to a group of
high school students visiting
our capitol, were disgraceful. You have the right to
believe what ever you want about
homosexuality, however, you had no right
forcing your intolerant and bigoted views on
these young children. With gay teen suicide rates
4 to 7 time higher than their non-gay
peers, it is people such as you sir, who contribute to
this horrific situation our gay teens
suffer. I have never been so disgusted
or outraged with member of our legislature.
How dare you take it upon yourself to tell these
children the Lord, our God, is going to
destroy them. The moral character you exposed these
young people to was of hatred,
ignorance and bias. Certainly not the high moral
character we expect and deserve from
an "elected" member our legislature. You should be
admonished for you unacceptable
behavior and treatment of these children which
was reprehensible. You owe each of the
young teens an
apology, not to mention your fellow legislators and to citizens of
Florida
for disgracing us.
As coordinator of Tampa Bay Coalition Against Hate and
Violence and member of the
Hate-Crime Network. I see daily the aftermath of the
hate and violence comments such
as yours. that incites
others to direct hatred and violence toward Gay people.
However,
nothing is more heart breaking than the effects your comments on gay teens. The number
of our fragile gay teens, who are caused so much pain, despair and feelings of such
hopelessness, by such hate speeches as yours. They take their own
lives. thinking it is
the only option they have to stop their
suffering. We strongly support Equality Florida
and their efforts in ending discrimination. I am sure it was not their
intention that the lesson the
young people participating in their Youth Lobby
Day was the one you taught them. I assume
you were confused, they were there in hope of
finding sponsors for an anti-discrimination
and a first hand example of being the victims. I would
ask that you to please keep in mind
the horrific effects of such hate speech does
cause. And, I pray no other of our gay teens
will suffer such a dehumanizing tirade by you ever again.
I am sharing the message to you sir, with other
members of our local government. So they
may see understand my anger and disgust for what these
poor children had to endure. In
what should have been a
wonderful experience where these children could of felt proud of
themselves. By participating in sharing their voices with
their legislator and taking part in
the legislative process of our
government. Instead were told, they would be the downfall
of their country, unless of course our Lord,God,
destroyed them before they could finish
that task. It is so very sad
the young people received a lesson on intolerance, ignorance
and bigotry, first hand. It
was a lesson, that many of us in our community were fighting with
all our heart, they would not experience and not
so soon in their lives. It is my wish all who
read this, will agree this should never have happened
and pray you will do what will ensure,
that it never again will happen. From the number of
messages Tampa Bay Coalition has
received, many feel as
strong as I on this matter. I invite you all to
visit our web site, our
Tribute and Memorial to Those
We Lost To Hate, which includes tributes to gay teens who
I thank you for the opportunity to share with you my
feelings and thoughts on this matter. I
would be pleased to respond to any questions. Please,
protect our gay youth from all the
hatred, intolerance, bias, torment, harassment
and discrimination, they must endure in our
public schools daily. It is
not going to ever end, until you pass such legislation as the
Florida
Dignity for all Students Act.
Sincerely
R. Zeke Fread
Coordinator & Organizer
Tampa Bay Coalition
Close Window to Return to
TBC Web Site