Last week, the Alabama House Republican caucus took a stand to back University of North Alabama Student Government Association President Jake Statom in a dispute over a social media post that included a photo of a T-shirt with a rainbow that read, “Born this way? You must be born again.”
Critics have called on Statom to resign. However, House Republicans warned against efforts to “cancel” Statom.
The effort was led by State Rep. Jamie Kiel (R-Russellville). During an interview with Mobile radio’s FM Talk 106.5, Kiel stressed the importance of lawmakers protecting the rights of individuals, including the First Amendment, at taxpayer-funded institutions of higher learning, like UNA.
“First of all, public universities are far from self-sustaining,” Kiel said. “You can check our state budget and find out how much taxpayer money goes to the universities. Because they are taxpayer-funded, we owe it to our taxpayers that our First Amendment is protected there. What I saw, what appeared to me was the canceling of Jake Statom, the SGA president of UNA. When I saw that happening, you know, I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to a 19 or 20-year-old young man, who might feel the pressure to resign and might be canceled, as it is called now.”
“And so, when I saw that, I contacted our caucus — our Republican caucus in Montgomery, and everyone — I mean, it was overwhelmingly in support of doing a resolution, and that’s what we did as a House caucus, to shine a light because we do represent a lot of folks, and our voice can be heard over an SGA president at a local university,” Kiel added.
@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.