Gainesville's LGBTQ community speaks out on Ben Sasse as likely next UF president

Folks within Gainesville's LGBTQ community aren’t particularly thrilled with the University of Florida’s choice for its next president.

But with less than three weeks before the board of trustees votes on the hire, some are unsure what can be done to stop it.

UF announced Thursday that U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R- Neb., was set to become the school’s 13th president after keeping its national search completely in the dark thanks to a bipartisan bill passed by the Florida Legislature last year that shielded candidate information from being public record.

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More coverage: Gainesville community reacts to Ben Sasse being secretly tapped to be UF's next president

Looking back: U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, through the years

Sasse over the years has made several anti-LGBTQ remarks while in public office, most notably expressing his "disappointment" of a 2015 Supreme Court decision that ruled same-sex marriage was protected by the 14th Amendment and a fundamental right.

“I have to say my initial reaction to the announcement was panic,” said Kestrel Ward, a queer librarian at UF. “I just don't know how safe it’s going to be to work at a university where the person in charge doesn't think I should have rights."

Much of the criticism centers around the UF Presidential Search Committee's secret hiring process, with some suggesting the controversy of Sasse's selection could have been avoided if more potential candidates were vetted by the public.

The committee's chairman, Rahul Patel, also a UF trustee, told the Gainesville Sun Thursday there was no political influence in the decision to choose the Republican lawmaker, adding that it came down to "listening" sessions where faculty, staff, alumni and students expressed what they wanted in the next leader.

"We (needed) our next leader (to be) a visionary, an innovator, a big thinker and someone who will differentiate us from others, a leader who is truly transformational," Patel said. "Ben Sasse is our transformational leader."

Some still question the motive, signaling to Patel and other trustees' connections to Republican candidates, namely the donations of hundreds of thousands to Gov. Ron DeSantis's reelection campaign.

Campaign finance records show that board of trustees Chairman Mori Hosseini has donated more than $100,000 to DeSantis' political committee, while Patel has donated $175,000. Both were appointed to the board by the governor, who previously threatened to withhold millions from public institutions that didn't revise instructional materials on the history of African Americans.

"The board of trustees has been making political choices for the past year," said Bryn Taylor, co-president of UF-Graduate Assistants United, a union that represented teaching assistants and graduate students. "They stopped five faculty members from testifying in a court case. They told researchers to destroy COVID-19 data because it didn't go along with the state’s messaging on Covid."

Taylor argues that if the board truly listened to what the UF community wanted, then Patel and others would have heard the specific request for the incoming president to not be a political choice.

"They picked a man who is a senator from Nebraska, who has never been to UF, never been to Gainesville," Taylor said. "He's very obviously not from Gainesville because he does not hold the overall ideas of Gainesville people."

Sasse's remarks after the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling

In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled on Obergefell v. Hodges, deciding same-sex marriage was protected under the Constitution. The decision allowed gays and lesbians to marry in states that previously restricted it.

Sasse released a statement through his official Senate website, saying marriage is between a man and a woman.

“Today’s ruling is a disappointment to Nebraskans who understand that marriage brings a wife and husband together so their children can have a mom and dad,” his statement said. “The Supreme Court once again overstepped its Constitutional role by acting as a super-legislature and imposing its own definition of marriage on the American people rather than allowing voters to decide in the states.”

In July, shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which has historically protected women’s right to abortion, lawmakers formed the Respect for Marriage Act to reaffirm same-sex marriage.

Asked whether he supported the bill, Sasse told reporters it was “bulls---,” and an "insane" bill because no one was challenging same-sex marriage.

“Is there a single case about it?” Sasse asked an NBCNews reporter. “I'm not answering questions that are about hypotheticals that are just (U.S. House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi trying to divide America with culture wars. I think it’s just the same bulls---. She's not an adult.”

It wasn't the first time Sasse made controversial statements on the issue.

In 2014, during a debate, Sasse said "it's empirically obvious that kids are best raised in a world with one mother and one father," according to the Omaha World-Herald. He said other questions, such as civil unions, are better left to the states, adding that "the government is not interested in who your best friend is.”

Sasse has also co-sponsored legislation that restricted the government from taking discriminatory action against someone who refused service to same-sex couples, grounding the refusal in the person's personal and religious beliefs that marriage is between a man and woman.

Those who opposed the bill called it taxpayer-funded discrimination and argued that it allowed federal contractors and employees to refuse basic services to same-sex couples. It also gave universities the right to terminate an unmarried teacher for becoming pregnant, the ACLU argued.

More recently, while running for reelection in 2020, Sasse also opposed a survey from the American Family Association that asked candidates whether they supported adding sexual orientation and gender identity as a protected class under the law.

Activism in Gainesville

In Gainesville, a community known for its activism, protests are already being planned to oppose the hire, which could take effect as early as Nov. 1.

But despite pushback, organizers say the hire is typical of how UF operates.

"We have a culture within the administration of UF to coddle and eagerly cooperate with conservative policies and ideologies, even at the expense of their marginalized students and workers,” said Bobby Mermer, a coordinator for the Alachua County Labor Coalition and former co-president of the UF-GAU.

After hearing that Sasse was the top pick, Mermer, a gay man, said he was ashamed to have recently earned his doctorate degree from the university, pointing to its history of anti-gay rhetoric.

The school's student union building, J. Wayne Reitz Union, located on Museum Road, was named after the school's former president, who was in charge during the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee. The team, commonly referred to as the Johns Committee, is named after Sen. Charley E. Johns, which sought to push out gay and lesbian students and employees at UF.

An estimated 15 professors and more than 50 students were targeted by investigators prior to them leaving UF.

"This move is on brand for UF," said Mermer of Sasse's selection.

Though Sasse has spoken out against same-sex marriage, his supporters say he isn't quite the radical extremist some paint him as.

"Ben Sasse is brilliant, a consensus builder and will be a great leader of a great University," former Gov. Jeb Bush wrote on Twitter Thursday.

He is an educated, well-spoken leader who has broke ranks with party line votes, including voting to impeach former president Donald Trump, which put him on the outs of the Republican Party with those like Liz Cheney. He has also sided with women coming out during the #MeToo movement. He has, however, voted against the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill, mask and vaccine requirements, and a number of environmental protection bills.

Still, some say his calm demeanor and ability to walk a political tightrope won't erase his voting record or past comments.

"Sen. Sasse is really going to have to prove and earn the trust of the LGBTQ community," Taylor said. "How is he going to represent the student body of the LGBTQ community when he's voted to take their rights away for the last 10 years?"

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville's LGBTQ community speaks out on Sasse as next UF president