A Florida woman is suing the city council that suspended her after her history of obscene, racist and homophobic tweets was uncovered and published in a local paper.The councilwoman, Judi Fike, was appointed to her seat in Groveland, Florida last year and is running for a full term. Related Gym caves to threats from state & bans trans women from locker rooms The gym wasnt breaking the law. The Florida attorney general was going to sue anyway. Fike responded to the local papers story with an apology to anyone who was hurt by the posts, while maintaining that their publication was a timed political attack just weeks ahead of her August primary. Insights for the LGBTQ+ community Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more. Subscribe to our Newsletter today I will not let that tactic work, she said.The collection of Fikes offensive screeds extends back to at least 2015, and reveal deep-seated animus toward Black and LGBTQ+ people.Just hours after the Pulse nightclub shooting in June 2016 in nearby Orlando, Fike posted to Facebook, Duh.why would the shooter target a gay club? My answerEasier than marching them up steps to push off the roof..some sarcasm, some truthIn 2015, Fike posted to her Widow Fike account on Twitter (now X), Can we divert our attention back to real news? The #LGBT freak show has had its run.Fike owns and operates a catering company called The Black Napkin.Last week, the city council confronted Fike with the posts in an open meeting, displaying screenshots as Fike watched, the Orlando Sentinel reports.Groveland Vice Mayor Barbara Gaines, who is Black, said the posts included racist portrayals of then-President Barack Obama as a monkey.This is a picture of President Ronald Reagan babysitting Barack Obama, except it is an ape, a baboon, a monkey or whatever you call it, Gaines said.In several tweets shared at the meeting, Fike obsesses over the word thug.#thug the new n word, she posted in 2015. Thug life = thug treatment = no pity from me, she wrote in 2019. In 2022, Fike shared a meme that read, Whats the magic word to get what you want? Racist! Groveland, Florida has a fraught history of racism against Black people. In 1949, false allegations of rape against four black teenagers known as The Groveland Four led to the extrajudicial killing of two of the teens and the wrongful imprisonment of two others. They were posthumously pardoned in 2019.In her defense over the Pulse nightclub post, Fike claimed for council members that her message was about a presidential candidate in 2016 aligning with a community in the Middle East who were pushing gay individuals off of buildings.It was meant as a support of the community, not against the community, she said. It might have been written in poor taste, but I want to clarify that for you because that was going on at the time. Fike went further about other posts, denying responsibility altogether.Those are indeed manipulated, and so Ill just let that rest, she said at the meeting. They are not my words. Some are, there are some copies, but what Barbara just showed were absolutely not products of mine.Council members were not swayed and voted her suspended until an investigation is complete.Two days later, Fike responded with a lawsuit.The city does not have the legal authority to suspend or remove any of its members, period, said Lake County Commissioner Anthony Sabatini, who is representing Fike. It just simply does not have that authority. Most cities dont.Groveland Mayor Kevin Keogh said he was more concerned with Fikes response to the allegations than the resurfaced posts themselves.It has to do with the non-truthful nature of your response, he told Fike, before voting with colleagues to suspend her.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.