OUTRAGEOUS BIGOTRY ! ! ! ! !

From The Tampa Tribune 4/10/2001

TALLAHASSEE - An honors student from Orlando is left in tears by "one of the people we're supposed to look up to."

Gay students lobbying for discrimination protection in Florida schools got a jolting civics lesson Monday from a lawmaker who welcomed them into his office only to declare: "God ... is going to destroy you."

"I don't understand why the gay population is becoming so vocal," state Rep. Allen Trovillion, R-Winter Park, told the Orlando-area high school students. "You are going to cause the downfall of this country that was built on Christian principles."

After listening patiently for 10 minutes as the students made their pitch, Trovillion, a conservative lawmaker representing the Orlando suburbs, told them flatly: "You're throwing your life away."

"I'm against discrimination, but I'm opposed to this," Trovillion, 74, said. The meeting left 17-year-old Chris Vasquez in tears.

Vasquez, an honors student and editor in chief of Edgewater High School's campus newspaper, thanked Trovillion for his time but was stunned as he left the lawmaker's office. "The Florida Legislature says we're going to hell," he said. "The part that really bothers me is the fact that he's one of the people we're supposed to look up to for moral guidance and support," Vasquez  added.

"He's spouting ... ideas that only make the world more dangerous for gay youth." Trovillion's daughter, Orange County School Board member Barbara Trovillion Rushing, said Monday night she was not surprised by her father's comments. She, too, said she sees no reason to broaden current law. "I think they're covered by the current laws," she said. "We do all we can to make our schools safe for all our students. They all have the same rights." The activists were taking part in Equality Florida Youth Lobby Day 2001, which was intended to increase awareness of the discrimination and harassment gay students say they endure on public school campuses.

They were looking for potential sponsors for The Florida Dignity for All Students Act, which they hope to see introduced in the Legislature as early as next year. It would broaden Florida's antidiscrimination laws to  include sexual orientation and gender identity.

Currently, state law forbids discrimination for race, gender, marital status, physical disability, age and religion. Organizers said three 

legislators, including Sen. Skip Campbell, D-Tamarac, expressed interest in sponsoring a bill. They also found a sympathetic ear in Sen. Buddy Dyer, D-Orlando, but no commitment. "Keep doing what you're doing," Dyer advised the students, sidestepping the

question of whether he would be willing to sponsor the legislation. "I don't know, I'd have to think about it."

Trovillion, on the other hand, told the group he had no intention of supporting their effort. "I will do anything I can to keep it from

happening," he said. Thomas Gentile, 19, sought to give the lawmaker a better sense of what gay students contend with in Florida schools each day. He described how he was beaten during his freshman year in a Boca Raton high school classroom by assailants who targeted him because of his sexual orientation. School administrators suspended the attackers for one day.  They also suspended Gentile, he said, suggesting he provoked the violence by being "too openly gay." Trovillion was unswayed.

"You have to suffer the consequences of your actions," he told the group. "The Scripture says that no homosexual will see the Kingdom of God, and I can't put it much straighter than that," Trovillion added. "God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and he is going to destroy you and a lot of others."