Chaz Stevens told Inside Edition Digital that despite being in Florida, he felt compelled to act on this because “sometimes an act of stupidity requires an even greater act of stupidity.”
A Florida man is creating signs which read “In God We Trust” in response to a Texas law SB-797, which requires public schools to display donated signs containing the phrase “In God We Trust” and “may not depict any words, images, or other information other than [that].”
Chaz Stevens launched the GoFundMe page this week as he pointed out on the crowdfunding site, “law seemingly presumes these signs are written in English. Oopsie.”
SB-797 was authorized into law last year by Sen. Bryan Hughes and the Dallas Observer pointed out that “He penned the legislation with strict requirements but seemingly overlooked a large loophole.”
“Senator Bryan Hughes seems to confuse ‘words’ with language. Looks like a Florida political mischief maker is charged with schooling him up,” Stevens, who spoke to Inside Edition Digital via email, said.
Stevens took to Twitter to announce his campaign and show off what the signs in Arabic will look like.
Stevens told Inside Edition Digital that despite being in Florida, he felt compelled to act on this because “sometimes an act of stupidity requires an even greater act of stupidity.”
“Well, like the Ghostbusters, who you gonna call? Why, Chaz Stevens of course,” he added. “I’ve got decades of experience, so trolling the Texas legislature who themselves are trolling the First Amendment is right up my alley.”
As of press time, Stevens tells Inside Edition Digital he has raised over $31,000 on his GoFundMe page of his $250,000 goal.
“Seems to me, John and Jane Q. Public aren’t very happy with the Texas GOP. And interestingly, contributions are not limited to the Lone Star State,” he said of the total raised in less than a week. “Judging by the positive outcry, seems as if I have my finger on the pulse of Texas, all while the State of Texas has it thumb, well, you know where.”
Stevens says he is not doing anything offensive and just doing “exactly what the law requires” in creating signs that read “In God We Trust,” in Arabic.
“If somehow someone is bothered by that phrase in Klingon, well then maybe he or she needs to take a break and think about themselves for just one minute. I’m happy to wait,” he added.
Stevens also plans on creating signs in Hindi, Vulcan, Spanish, and other language signs as well as LGBTQIA+ inclusion, as “just merely using the Texas law as it was intended. Or perhaps, as it was unintended,” he tells Inside Edition Digital.
Despite the project raising awareness, Stevens did tell Inside Edition Digital that it all is “indeed [good fun] but it’s also silly.”
He then added that what he is doing might also be looked at as “tragic, as we’re allowing our elected officials to dilute the very American essence of this country's history. Pretty soon, all we'll have left is just an easily replaceable piece of red/white/blue cloth with no meaning or value behind its existence.”
Inside Edition Digital has reached out to Senator Hughes for comment on this story and has not heard back.
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