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Florida Rep. Randy Fine tweets threatening message to President Biden after Texas school shooting ‘Try to take our guns and you’ll learn why the 2nd Amendment was written in the first place’ BY JI M T URNER AND TO M URB AN, NSF
The view from above: Hevia had to serve out the rest of her sentence in the Seminole County Jail SATELLITE VIEW COURTESY GOOGLE MAPS
STRAIGHT TIME
Kaylin Hevia enrolled in a drug rehab program in lieu of jail time. Then they kicked her out for being gay BY ER IC TEGHETOFF
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n Feb. 21, 2022, Kaylin Hevia was near the 10-month mark of her yearlong, court-ordered treatment in a drug rehab program when managers of the program called her into their office. It was a Monday. The facility managers told her they knew about her relationship with another woman in the program. Hevia denied it at first, but relented when the other woman was brought into the room. Technically, the 29-year-old had broken the rehab facility’s “no touching” rule. But for leadership at the center, her biggest infraction had been lying about kissing another woman. She was kicked out of the program that night and put on a bus to Orlando. Hevia’s now in a Seminole County jail — enrollment in the rehab was a mandatory condition of her probation. The drug treatment program she was in is called Teen Challenge; it’s a Christian rehabilitation organization with more than a thousand centers across the country for both minors and adults. Teen Challenge and its supporters laud the program’s successes in breaking people of their drug addictions. But it’s come under increased scrutiny in recent years as former participants allege harsh treatment in the program. Hevia says her sexual orientation was a topic revisited over and over again during her treatment at the Southeast Florida Women’s Rehab in Davie, a Teen Challenge facility outside Miami. She says the facility’s executive director, Pastor Rick Fernandez, advised her to find help for her sexuality. “Basically, that’s the issue, and drugs are just on the surface,” Hevia told Orlando Weekly in a phone interview. “But that is the root issue.”
After getting kicked out of the program, Hevia appeared in court April 6 for breaking the terms of her probation. At the hearing, administration for the Southeast Florida Women’s Rehab denied that Hevia’s sexual orientation played any role in her dismissal. Judge Melissa Souto agreed, sentencing Hevia to 120 days in jail for violating the program’s notouching rule. “Her reason for discharge was not that she was gay,” Souto said at the hearing. “But in fact she had touched another student on more than one occasion as a repeated violation of the rules.” The state attorney’s office for the 18th judicial district in Seminole County released a statement noting Hevia had signed a plea deal 19 days before she left the Davie facility in which charges against her would be dropped if she completed the drug program. The statement also claimed the narrative that Hevia was dismissed for her sexual orientation was “factually incorrect and we believe misleading.” But in courtroom before the judge’s ruling, Hevia’s attorney, Natasha Ghica, asked Fernandez about his program’s acceptance of gay people. “Your word and my word is different,” Fernandez said. “Because I’m a Christian. Gay means happy. The reality is we work with people with life-controlling problems. It doesn’t matter whether they’re homosexuals, gay, drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes.” Fernandez elaborated when pressed on the question again. “We accept them with the understanding that they’re not going to push their agenda — that they’re coming for help. Not to push their agenda, to want to get in a relationship.”
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n the wake of last Tuesday’s school shooting in Texas, Democratic lawmakers in Florida called on their Republican colleagues to use time remaining in a special legislative session on property insurance to address firearm-related measures such as imposing universal background checks on gun buyers. House leaders offered prayers as a response to the latest series of mass shootings, while some Republicans maintained opposition to any efforts to restrict access to firearms. Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican from the Palm Bay area of Brevard County, on Wednesday told reporters it was “completely inappropriate” for President Joe Biden to “politicize the situation,” referring to the shooting in Uvalde in which 19 children and two adults died. “We should be focused on those families,” Fine said. “We should be focused on understanding what happened.” Biden Tuesday night called for tougher gun controls and for Americans to stand up to powerful gun lobbyists. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with it and stand up to the lobbies?” Biden remarked. “It’s time to turn this pain into action.” Fine’s response to Biden’s remarks raised eyebrows. “I have news for the embarrassment that claims to be our President — try to take our guns and you’ll learn why the Second Amendment was written in the first place,” Fine tweeted. Rep. Anthony Sabatini, a Howey-in-the-Hills Republican who is running for Congress, used the massacre at an elementary school to continue his push for a “constitutional carry” proposal, which would allow people to carry concealed weapons without first getting a license from the state. “Florida must pass Constitutional Carry now, [number] 1 fastest way to secure our public spaces and institutions. Also, re-open the mental asylums that liberals closed in the 1970s and get these psychos out of society ASAP. Make the Edu-crats secure our schools for once!” Sabatini tweeted.
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JUNE 1-7, 2022 ● ORLANDO WEEKLY
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