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Dixon man speaks out against controversial vice mayor, shares past experience

A 20 -year-old Dixon man is speaking out and sharing a past experience he had with controversial Vice Mayor Ted Hickman and former Dixon Vice Mayor Mike Ceremello. At the time he was only 15-years-old.

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Earlier this summer, Dixon's Vice Mayor Ted Hickman faced backlash after an op-ed about the LGBTQ community published in the city's Independent Voice.

Many residents called for his resignation and protested at city council meetings. The city council voted against stripping Hickman of his title.

Robert Petrick, 20, spoke out at one of those city council meetings, sharing his story for the first time. A protestor heard and convinced him to share with a wider audience. Petrick said he first read Hickman's column "That's Life" when he was 15 years old in 2013.

The article addressed Harvey Milk Day in California schools, calling it a "glorification" and "defending conservatives" rights to be "upset about their government sneaking in a pro-queer day in public schools."

Petrick said he also felt Hickman was advocating for a Dan White Day. White was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who killed Mayor Goerge Moscone and Milk at City Hall.

As a member of the LGBTQ community, Petrick felt concerned reading those words and wrote an email. Petrick said he found a week later that he was called out in a guest article by Mike Ceremello, who has also been Vice Mayor of Dixon. Ceremello is running for city council in the upcoming election.

The article reads:

"I read Terrible Ted’s commentary on “pro-queer day in public schools” mainly because I received an email attributed to “Robert Petrick” complaining about Ted’s lack of humility and sundry attacks on the LGBT coalition. I believe LGBT stands for Low Growth By Transition referencing the left’s love for the elimination of human population on this planet."

Petrick said he proudly started the Gay Straight Alliance at his high school, so he wasn't concerned about being outed. He said he was more concerned about being called out in a local paper by public officials. At the time, he didn't know how to handle it.

"The real sort of sense of disgust I had didn't really manifest until a while later," Petrick said.

Now that years has passed and he's older, he's doing what he wishes he had done then.

"Is this behavior acceptable with elected officials?" questioned Petrick. "Should we hold our officials up to a higher standard?"

ABC10 reached out to Hickman and Ceremello. Hickman did not want to comment and as of Wednesday evening, Ceremello did not respond.

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