About an hour after I finished giving my speech, my brother, who is also part of our group Florida Straights, received messages from his former employer claiming that he started an anti-homosexual hate group. Then I began to receive phone calls saying that “they” were coming for me, that our addresses were online, that they knew where we lived, that we better watch our backs, and that they wished the vilest stuff imaginable on our sons.
At this point, I had not even gotten home from the school board yet. My brother also received a phone call at around 8PM that evening from an employer he was supposed to begin working for the upcoming Thursday, asking him about his affiliation with a hate group (How they knew he was starting a job that he only told family about, blew our minds).
So, at that point, I knew my job was being targeted as well, as I was the one who was speaking. I called my Director of Operations and spoke with her, informing her that I had spoken at the school board and some parents had been making angry phone calls in response. She asserted that what I do in my private time was not the company’s concern, and not to worry.
I was the Director of Human Resources for several companies, including Grande Aire Services and Haines AC/Refrigeration. I also frequently consulted for several other companies in the United Air Temp enterprise. My job, for which I had recently received a salary increase and great reviews from everyone, including the VP of HR and Company President, progressed as usual on the following day after the school board meeting on Wednesday, May 3rd.
However, around 3:30 PM, our Director of Operations and VP of HR for United Air Temp came into my office and informed me that due to the response from the video of me online and the fact that we have employees who identify as LGBTQ+, it could create an unsafe work environment for me to continue my employment. I was terminated effective immediately and had to return on the weekend to retrieve my belongings so as not to cause a disruption. I was not offered any severance, nor was I offered an opportunity to request any investigation. TikTok, done.
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That evening, we began getting harassed on our social media pages and through messages. Many of the messages were obscene and vulgar, including many threatening homosexual acts on myself or my children. My brother receives calls daily calling him a racist, homophobe, etc. One of the groups attacking us is run by a girl named Beth Weinstein, who runs an organization called Indivisible Pro-Choice Pinnellas.
However, there are several Sarasota Activist Groups that frequently go to the school boards and try to cancel those who don’t fall in line with their agenda, that are equally involved but most hide their numbers or use fake email addresses. I find it frightening that these are also the folks effectively lobbying our local and state legislators under the guise of ‘love and inclusion’. This is the most hate I have seen in my entire life, and it’s after a 3-minute speech asking for everyone to be included which I thought was what all these groups supported in the first place.