FLUNKING OUT

Ben Sasse Skewered by University of Florida Students Over Anti-LGBTQ Statements

Looking to step into the role of University of Florida’s new president, senator Ben Sasse is facing backlash over his past statements against the LGBTQ community.

As Ben Sasse gears up for his first campus visit today, University of Florida students are recoiling at the idea of the Nebraska senator taking over duties as UF’s new president. Currently the lone finalist for the position, Sasse is taking heat over his past statements against the LGBTQ community, especially his negative sentiments toward the Supreme Court’s passing of Obergefell vs. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2015. The politician’s website still lists “the sanctity of marriage” as one of the top issues for which he advocates. “It blows my mind that this is the sole person that they came up with,” Alex Noon, a UF student who is president of the law school’s LGBTQ organization, said in an interview. “I could probably go downtown on a Thursday and find someone better.” After today’s visit, Sasse is expected to return to Gainesville on Nov. 1, to be interviewed by the UF board of trustees.