BROWARD COUNTY, FL – A collective group of comunity organizations is uniting to strongly condemn the offensive, racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim and homophobic comments made by School Board Candidate Ryan Petty on his Twitter account. In posts depicted in the Sun-Sentinel (in an article entitled School Board candidate Ryan Petty has history of controversial tweets dated 7/27/18) and on Ryan Petty’s Twitter account, he made numerous derogatory remarks targeting people of color, people of the Jewish faith, people of the Islamic faith and people in the LGBTQ community.
This past Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of when a group of violent racists descended upon Charlottesville, VA spewing their hateful rhetoric and killing/attacking innocent people. On Sunday, some of those same hateful bigots once again paraded their hateful worldviews in a very public way – this time in the nation’s capitol. The spectacle of hate being forced upon our mainstream social consciousness remind us of the profound risks to the well being of people from our respective communities that hate creates. Many of the derogatory comments made by Ryan Petty reflect some of the same negative sentiments towards people from our respective communities. Thus, we stand firmly against divisive, racist and discriminatory behavior in all its forms. We urge the residents of Broward County to stand with us in ensuring that there is no place for bigotry in our community.
The list of collaborators is-suing this statement include:
* Marsha Ellison, President, NAACP Fort Lauderdale/Broward Branch
* Michael Balaban, President/CEO, Jewish Federation of Broward County
* Dale Holness, Chair, Broward Black Elected Officials
Suhail Nanji, Chairman, Emgage (Empowering Engaged Muslims)
* Mark Ketcham, Executive Director, SunServe
* Scott Herman, LGBTQ Community Activist and Combat Disabled Veteran
* Ana Valladares, Hispanic Community Activist
