TAMPA, Fla. — The Sheriff of Volusia County, along with members of the transgender community, claim a Florida House of Representatives member, who called transgender people “mutants” and “demons,” is inciting violence from hate groups.
Republican Representative Webster Barnaby of District 29 spoke up in a commerce committee meeting Monday regarding a house bill that would prevent trans men and women from using bathrooms of the opposite gender assigned at birth.
“This is the planet Earth where God created men, male and women, female,” he said sternly.
He later said, “It’s like we have mutants living among us on planet Earth,” referring to transgender people as mutants from the X-Men movie.
“The Lord rebuke you, Satan, and all of your demons and all of your imps who come parade before us. That's right, I called you demons and imps who come and parade before us and pretend that you are part of this world,” he exclaimed.
Shortly after, Barnaby apologized for one word he used.
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“I would like to apologize to the trans community for referring to you as demons,” he said.
But the Sheriff of Volusia County said those were public words he cannot take back.
“This hatred speech, it emboldens and infuriates these people to a point where they take action, and here's a man who's representing, he’s elected to represent Volusia County, and that's what he does, knowing what this community is going through,” exclaimed Sheriff Mike Chitwood.
“We just went through an incident that was not only national news, it was international news, with the Neo Nazis coming in here professing their hate for race, religion, for ethnicity and for sexual orientation,” Sheriff Chitwood said, adding that they’ve also been threatening his life.
Heather St. Amand moved with her 19-year-old daughter from Tampa, Florida to Virginia at the end of March because of the very bill Barnaby was speaking on.
“I left the state of Florida with my family and my daughter, my daughter is trans, because it's just not safe there anymore," St. Amand said. “It's not safe sending my child into the men's room. It's not.”
She said even though legislators claim the bill is for safety, Barnaby’s comments showed the opposite.
“There was a call to action in what he said, a call in the most highest and dangerous level. So in my opinion, any trans violence that occurs after those comments need to be attributed directly to Barnaby,” she said.
The Tampa Bay Young Republicans President Jake Hoffman disagrees. He told ABC Action News that better words could have been chosen, but they stand by Barnaby.
“I think that some of the language isn't exactly the language that's being used by people that are still on his side of it, but there is an agreement on the agenda being pushed,” Hoffman explained.
Hoffman added that he doesn’t think these words fuel violence or mass shootings, pointing to examples of violence from the trans community, such as the Covenant School shooting in Nashville in March.
St. Amand said she feels much safer in her new home, but she believes Barnaby should be expelled.
In Florida’s House Rules, there’s no particular line in the code of conduct that refers to the way a state rep speaks about others, but it does state, “A member… shall perform at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and independence of the House and of the Legislature.”
A spokesperson for the Florida Commission on Ethics told us they only recommend removal from office to the house speaker if it includes the misuse of a position for a benefit.
Even then, expulsion requires a two-thirds vote by members.
We reached out to Representative Barnaby’s office several times for comment. We also reached out to the speaker’s office. We have not heard back.
