As a co-worker, student and friend of Zot Lynn Szurgot, I am confident that the allegations described in the Friday issue of the Alligator are false.
Zot is one of the most compassionate human beings that I have ever met and has demonstrated her commitment to workers’ rights, social justice and sustainability time and time again. Many residents of this community owe Zot a debt of gratitude for her efforts, but all of us owe her the benefit of a fair trial before a jury of her peers.
I was extremely disappointed that the editorial staff of the Alligator disregarded the most basic tenets of our criminal justice system, as well as journalistic standards, when you decided to summarily convict Zot of these allegations in your “Darts & Laurels” editorial.
The crimes that Zot has been accused of come with potentially harsh, lifelong consequences if she is convicted. Before you condemn someone to such a fate in the public eye, you should be damn sure that they are guilty.
There is not a single one of us who hasn’t at some point in our lives been accused of something that we were innocent of, and we owe each other the same basic decency that we’d expect and that has been outlined in our criminal justice system from its origins.
Further, I noted that both your editorial and the news story made use of Zot’s status as a transgender person. This status has no more relevance than Zot’s age or race, and I am concerned that you were playing into trans-phobic sentiments in our community and grossly misinformed stereotypes of our transgender neighbors.
While I doubt that you were intentionally trying to harm the transgender community through your statements, words can be powerful weapons and I encourage you to be more circumspect in your use of them in the future.
I hope that you will retract your unfortunate statements immediately and will apologize personally to both Zot and to the community at large for your journalistic shortcomings in this instance.
Jason Fults
Gainesville resident
