Participants in PFLAG’s Lobby Day who recently met with congressional offices of members representing their states and districts said they were mistreated by aides for Republican U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Ted Cruz. By contrast, after the opening meeting of PFLAG’s National Convention, the participants said that staff for other members, including other Republicans who include U.S. Reps. Aaron Bean, Beth Van Duyne, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn were positive, affirming, and respectful. Cindy Hill-Nobles, president of PFLAG of Jacksonville stated how she got incensed when an aide in Scott’s office openly smirked while she recounted how her son once contemplated suicide because he was bullied extensively after coming out as gay in fourth grade. She said the staffer accused her of trying to put porn in the hands of children after she told him about the banned books club that she had formed with a local church to offer better access to stories with LGBTQ+ characters and narratives that might mitigate bullying and potentially spare other children and families from the pain hers had survived. Scott’s Communications Director McKinley Lewis, who was not in attendance, addressed Hill-Nobles’s account of the meeting in an emailed statement saying the claims are not true.
