- A school board candidate in Florida suggested doctors who help trans kids should be hanged.
- Alisabeth Janai Lancaster made the comments during a conservative candidate forum this week.
- Lancaster's comments drew national condemnation from trans groups and fellow politicians.
A conservative school board candidate in Florida made national headlines this week after she publicly asserted that doctors who help treat transgender children should be lynched.
Alisabeth Janai Lancaster, who is running for a seat on the Santa Rosa County School Board, made the comments during a Monday political forum for conservative-leaning candidates in the county, according to The Pensacola News Journal.
"These doctors that are going along with mutilating these children and prescribing hormone blockers to these kids, in my opinion, they should be hanging from the nearest tree," Lancaster said as the room applauded.
Lancaster did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
The local candidate's comments sparked outcry outside of Florida this week after a video shared on social media by Twitter user Alejandra Caraballo went viral.
—Alejandra Caraballo (@Esqueer_) July 20, 2022
A different video of Lancaster's speech was first shared by the Gulf Coast Patriots, which organized Monday's "Closing Arguments" forum near Pensacola, The News Journal reported, but the account removed the clip following media attention.
Candidates at the Monday event were given five minutes to introduce themselves and discuss their positions, according to the newspaper. During her speech, Lancaster highlighted her Christian values and said she would like to see prayer reinstated over moments of silence.
"Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values and beliefs that I believe should be respected and encouraged," the self-identified grandmother said.
Lancaster cited the "welfare and protection" of students as her primary reason for running and said children should not be "burdened with a woke agenda." She also railed against critical race theory.
Lancaster's comments drew condemnation from her opponent Carol Boston.
"A statement advocating a violent act such as lynching is abhorrent and alarming," Boston told The News Journal. "It is un-American to call for the murder of Americans that disagree with us."
Although school board races are nonpartisan, the Santa Rosa County Republican Party previously endorsed Lancaster as a preferred candidate in the race, the newspaper reported. A representative for the party did not immediately respond to Insider's inquiry into whether the organization would continue to support Lancaster following her violent comments.
Once hyper-local organizations, school boards have recently become political battlegrounds as Republicans zero in on education as the next site of an ideological war. Earlier this year, Florida passed the "Parental Rights in Education" bill — which critics dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" legislation — banning discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in primary classrooms.