The 19-year-old Florida college student wanted to make sure the 50-year-old Nebraska politician knew the stakes.
“The University of Florida has a long history of not being welcoming to people like myself,” said Oscar Santiago Perez, addressing U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse during Sasse’s interview last week to become UF president.
Santiago Perez, a member of the student senate and the university’s LGBTQ advisory committee, reminded Sasse of the infamous Johns Committee, the Florida legislative panel that tried to purge gay people from UF and other campuses in the 1950s and ‘60s. He referred to Sasse’s well-publicized stand against same-sex marriage, and the senator’s efforts to dismiss the resulting criticism as part of the culture wars.
