Brice Ehmig, a gay senior at Florida Gulf Coast University, could no longer stand the “hate preacher’s” anti-gay message. So, when he came back with a megaphone, she decided to get noisier. She got her bagpipes and played Amazing Grace.
Ehmig received both praise and criticism. Fellow student Travis Means claimed both had Freedom of Speech. He thought Ehmig was “fighting fire with fire” and that the preacher was shouting “controversial remarks.” Trevor Brown commented that it was not “proper” and that Ehmig was being “disrespectful, too.”
Ehmig wanted to stand up for herself and feel brave. Shesaid that the preacher had been on campus for days and mentioned “more violent things.” She added, “When I hear things like that, I just think about me when I was 12 and still in the closet and feeling really bad about myself. I wouldn’t want her to feel bad, 12-year-old me, I need to stand up for her.” She admitted that the preacher had the right to speak his just as she had the right to play her bagpipes.
Gabrielle Cicolani, Ehmig’s girlfriend, was “proud” of Ehmig. Cicolani recorded the event and it went viral. It has been viewed over 100,000 times.