TALLAHASSEE – As reported last week in the Agenda ( July 18, “IS SHE, OR ISN’T SHE? Ex-Staffer Claims She Found Florida Lt Gov in ‘Compromising Position’ with Female Aide”), Florida Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll is in the center of a political firestorm, accused by a former aide who says she discovered Carroll in an intimate embrace with a different female employee.
The lieutenant governor strongly denied the charges of a gay work-related affair, telling an interviewer that “black women that look like me don’t engage in relationships like that.” The lieutenant governor also emailed a video to supporters, denying the lesbian rumor.
LGBT advocates condemned Carroll’s flippant remarks. “As a proud Lesbian, I was outraged when [Carroll] perpetuated homophobic social stigma to defend herself from accusations surrounding an alleged inappropriate sexual liaison with her female travel aide,” said Sally Phillips, President of the Florida GLBT Democratic Caucus. “Lesbians are your daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts and grandmothers.
They have the same strong capacity to love, to nurture a family and to compete in the workplace as any other human being of either gender,” she added.