FPC’s Jack Petocz, Suspended in March, Is President Biden’s Guest at White House Signing of LGBTQ Order

The order also aims to prevent “conversion therapy” (the attempt to convert non-heterosexuals to heterosexuality), safeguard health care and support suicide-prevention programs for LGBTQ people, counter homelessness and advance LGBTQ equality.

“Very exciting day, I just came back from the Pride event,” Petocz said by phone early this evening. “It was awesome.”

Petocz had gained national attention earlier this year through a front-page article in The New York Times after he led the opposition to two Flagler County school board members’ drive to ban certain library books. The article led to interviews on national news networks and on the BBC. But he caught the White House’s attention only after the walkout at FPC, when the president’s director of LGBTQ issues, Hannah Bristol, invited him on a call with Admiral Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health and human services–and any administration’s first openly transgender woman–Levine and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to talk about how the Biden administration could put in place federal protections for students in the wake of discriminatory legislation.

A month later, he got an email titled: “Invitation from the President and Dr. Jill Biden to come to the White House for the Pride event.”

“The whole White House was open. So there was the red room, the green room, and you could kind of mingle and you could explore a little bit,” he said. “So it was very cool to kind of walk around the White House and just explore. It’s an amazing building, it was such a cool opportunity. And then I was brought backstage with a few other student activists from across the nation. We were brought into the green room and held there for a few minutes, and then we were brought into the red room to meet some important people, as they phrased it.”

Those people were the president and Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Douglas Emhoff, the lawyer and Harris’s husband, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. And so were Judy and David Shepherd, parents of Matthew Shepard, who was tortured and murdered in Wyoming in 1998 for being gay. His murder spurred the beginnings of hate-crime legislation.

“The President was very kind. We talked for a few minutes and we all took pictures with the White House photographer,” Petocz said. “He held my arm and we talked for a few minutes.” Biden asked him where he was from and what his work involved, giving Petocz the chance to describe how he led the walkout.

Biden, he said, “just kept saying how proud he was of all of us, and it was a very endearing conversation. Very exciting.”

In a conversation with Buttigieg, Petocz could tell the transportation secretary how he’d worked on his presidential campaign in 2020, and how Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten Buttigieg, had called Jack after the FPC walkout to talk about his work.




He wasn’t the only Floridian guest. “My name is Javier Gomez. I use he/him pronouns, and I’m honored to be here with you all today,” Gomez, who spoke at the signing ceremony, said. “I’m an 18 year old proud gay, Venezuelan American from Miami, Florida.” He graduated high school last week. ” When I was five years old, I knew I was different. I knew I like boys. But I didn’t know the words for it. I was mocked and bullied for being too gay, too. feminine, or too outgoing. Those words silence me. But I had an escape from this. My openly gay fifth grade teacher. He created a classroom that made me feel welcomed I even remember noticing his rainbow socks. It was a small, a big symbol that gave me hope.”

“You know, who knows? Maybe as I said someday you’ll be standing here,” the president told Gomez. “I promise when I got elected I wanted my administration to look like America, look like America across the board. And we’ve done that: a record number of out and proud appointees at every single level of our government.” He enumerated his appointees, noted his ending the transgender ban in the military, and talked of ongoing attacks on LGBTQ communities in different places in the country.

“The attacks were more than ever last year. And they’re on pace again this year. They’re disgusting, and they have to stop,” the president said. “Right now there are young people sitting in their bedroom, doors closed, silent, scrolling through social media, staring at the ceiling, wondering if they’ll ever be loved, ever marry, ever have a family and accepted by their own family.” He called conversion therapy a “dangerous, discredited practice,” summarized the executive order’s reach, and called on Congress to pass the Equality Act.

“We’re in a battle for the very soul of this nation. And that’s not hyperbole. We’re in a battle for the soul of the nation,” he said. “When I look around this room here and all you hear today, It’s a battle I know we will win. We will win.”

It was the first Pride event at the White House since the pandemic. “Finally, finally, we’re all back at the White House to gather and doesn’t this feel great?” Jill Biden told the cheering crowd. “We know that this progress hasn’t reached everyone in the same way,” she said. “We know that in places across the country, like Florida, Texas or Alabama, rights are under attack. And we know that in small towns and big cities, prejudice and discrimination still lurk. It shouldn’t take courage to be yourself. It shouldn’t take courage to go to school and walk down the halls as the person you know you are.”

Petocz is entering his senior year in a few weeks, toggling SAT exams with all sorts of applications and the increasing demands on his time. “It’s pretty stressful being, you know, 17 year old high school student and dealing with so much, but it’s such so such necessary and important work and it’s also so exciting,” he said today. “How many people can say they were an invited guest to the White House to meet a sitting president? It’s very exciting work and it’s something that I’ve always wanted to be involved in, and I am so happy to do it.”

He was invited to speak at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics a few weeks ago, fell in love with the school and now hopes to attend Harvard after graduation, with a concentration on government studies. He is featured in a full-length portrait in this month’s Teen Vogue. He just won the Flagler/Volusia ACLU essay contest for a piece on America’s endangered democracy. (He has the distinction of being the only student ever censored at a school board meeting, by a sitting school board member). After a week’s break in Palm Coast he will be spending July in Washington, working with Gen-Z for Change. “We’re going to be pursuing a lot of midterm work, especially in Florida with DeSantis, planning for that and strategizing.

“All here today, thank you, thank you,” the president told the people assembled as he signed, “thank you for working to deliver the American promise of freedom.” Petocz had to travel to the White House to hear those words, which have been rare in his own home county, though this evening he’d also won the admiration of Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt.




“I commend any student who works to right injustices in the world,” Mittlestadt wrote in a statement in reply to a request for comment about Petocz’s appearance at the White House. “I also believe Flagler Schools continues to be an advocate for those who may not have a voice. Teachers, staff, and administrators have worked with students and student leaders over the years to find the best, and most productive ways to call for change on our campuses, in our community, in our state, our nation, or globally. Sadly, we are in a political climate that has polarized our country. Personal beliefs have overridden civil discourse and made it difficult for us to be respectful of others’ opinions.”

Noting last week’s appearance of Gov. Ron DeSantis for a bill-signing at the Flagler County courthouse, prompted by the work of another Flagler County schools student, Mittlestadt continued: “Whether it’s Jack Petocz attending a signing ceremony with President Biden calling for LGBTQ+ protections, or Emma Stanford attending a signing ceremony with Governor DeSantis providing continuing care for retired law enforcement K9s, our students continue to speak out and work to affect change.”