LADY LAKE, FL (352Today.com) – Lady Lake Commissioner Treva Roberts walked out of the October 6, 2026, commission meeting during public comment after a speaker said homosexuality and being transgender are mental illnesses.
According to Roberts, who is gay, she has sat through more than a year of similar comments from the Reverend Paul Harsh of First Baptist Church of Lady Lake and members of his congregation. The comments began after the town issued Pride Month proclamations in 2024 and 2025. Harsh has missed only a few meetings since July 2025, she said, using public comment to read biblical verses opposing homosexuality and to accuse the commission of wanting Pride parades and drag queens reading to children.
“I’ve made only one public statement verbally about his statements,” Roberts said. “I support his right to his First Amendment right to say whatever he thinks, and as long as he was directing it at the commission in general… While not enjoying listening to what he had to say, I was willing to sit there and abide it.”
She said rules of decorum prohibit singling out specific commissioners or attacking individuals. Until recently, she said, Harsh and his parishioners had not crossed that line.
On Oct. 6, that changed.
Roberts said Harsh began by saying the mayor Ed Freeman and she were “essentially the moral decline of Lady Lake.” She directed people to the town’s meeting video for his exact words. Then the third speaker, Rick Carlins, took the podium.
Carlins said his heart breaks for the nation. “We have squandered such a blessing in this nation. It was founded by the providence of God,” he said. “God’s hand was in the forming and the foundation of this nation, because we were looking for a place to raise and rear our children with virtue and values… Obedient to biblical commands.” He said people in magisterial positions have a stronger charge to instill those values through laws, proclamations, and resolutions.
He then turned to town events. “You know it’s with regard to canceling the Christmas parade and funding the Halloween parade,” Carlins said. “But more egregious than that is being supportive of homosexuality in transgender communities. These are mental illnesses… And they need to be treated as such. And that’s exactly the way that it has been, and it’s the way that it needs to be now. Our children need to have something wholesome to look forward to. Believe me, a transgender is not wholesome.”
Roberts said she had listened to the first two speakers. When Carlins called homosexuality a mental illness, she left. Roberts said she checked with her attorney, and her attorney confirmed that nothing she did was wrong by walking out at the time that she did.
“I decided that I had enough,” she said. “While he’s got his right to think what he thinks, the mayor should have shut it down because it became more personal in the attack. And I felt like the only way that I had to register my displeasure at what he was doing was to pack up my things and leave the room.”
Earlier in the same public comment period, Jason McCurso addressed the mayor about a proposed Charlie Kirk proclamation. “What part of the Kirk proclamation did you not agree with?” McCurso asked. “Was it the part that Kirk was a Christian, or was it the part that he was educating the youth, or was it the part about the building of civic trust, or was it the part about communication …There was nothing else about his partisan points of view or anything like that.”
Roberts said she has refrained from further public comment because residents have their own opinions and First Amendment rights. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t have the right not to be attacked,” she said. “I’m just trying to do the right thing for my constituents, for Lady Lake to make reasoned decisions, and attacking my personal life every time he comes up to the podium to speak to the commission really goes beyond the pale.”
She noted that Harsh does not live in Lady Lake, though his church is in town, and that Carlins also does not live in Lady Lake. She said she has received phone calls, texts, cards, and mail, overwhelmingly supportive, telling her the comments do not belong at a town meeting.
Roberts has been married to a woman for 36 years, legally since same-sex marriage became legal. “Being gay or whatever is not a mental illness,” she said, “and you know, being what I do in the privacy of my home is not illegal, and it’s none of his business, and it has no business being in town hall.”
She said a Pride Month proclamation is not unusual. “Pride proclamation is a national thing, and it’s not out of the pale to recognize that that’s a national event that happens around the country,” she said. “So this is his singular objection to it, feeling like he’s in some kind of spiritual battle for Lady Lake, is over the top.”
Harsh has been at almost every meeting since July 2025, she said, and used to participate in proclamations before the dispute. “He’s got every right,” Roberts said. “I was a soldier. I served in the Army from 1982 till 2001, and he’s got every right. And I would defend to the death his right to have his own opinion with the First Amendment. But at a certain point, you know, getting up there and beating up on LGBTQ people month in and month out is, you know, it is his opinion. Save it for your church. Talk to the people in your church. You know, it’s just not town business per se. You know, recognize the national event, and that’s it.”
She expects him at the next meeting. “No, I will not be intimidated,” she said. “He’s not going to silence me.” She noted she was reelected unopposed and will serve until at least 2030. “It’s almost like he’s galvanizing my resolve to stay, to prove that the LGBTQ community, just like everybody else, we want to live happy lives, we want to feel safe in our communities, and we want to not be attacked for just being who we are and who we love.”
The meeting video can be viewed here.