--- title: Florida State Senator Who Allegedly Called His Female Colleague a ‘B-tch’ Apologizes description: Find out why Florida State Sen. Frank Artiles apologized for referring to his colleague Audrey Gibson with a series of sexist slurs. canonical: https://time.com/4746309/frank-artiles-female-colleage-sexist-racist-slurs/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-19T16:43:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:29.489Z og:title: Florida State Senator Who Allegedly Called His Female Colleague a ‘B-tch’ Apologizes og:description: 'There is no excuse for the exchange that occurred' og:url: https://time.com/4746309/frank-artiles-female-colleage-sexist-racist-slurs/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22fd0fc0d37e2b96/6988c391cd1bba5c4f704cde/frank-artiles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2616 og:image:height: 1472 og:image:alt: Frank Artiles og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Florida State Senator Who Allegedly Called His Female Colleague a ‘B-tch’ Apologizes twitter:description: 'There is no excuse for the exchange that occurred' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22fd0fc0d37e2b96/6988c391cd1bba5c4f704cde/frank-artiles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Florida State Senator Who Allegedly Called His Female Colleague a ‘B-tch’ Apologizes > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Worth Your Time: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Worth Your Time is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more. Worth Your Time is a curated guide to the culture worth knowing, from the biggest conversations of the moment to the books, shows, ideas and discoveries worth your attention. Culture editor Eliza Berman taps TIME's collective taste and perspective to surface what is worth watching, reading, talking about and sharing, and why. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Apr 19, 2017 4:43 PM UTC  Republican state senator Frank Artiles asking a question about a pip insurance bill during house session in Tallahassee, FL, on March 9, 2012. Republican state senator Frank Artiles asking a question about a pip insurance bill during house session in Tallahassee, FL, on March 9, 2012. Steve Cannon—AP  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney Apr 19, 2017 4:43 PM UTC A Florida state senator is under pressure to resign after allegedly using a series of [sexist](http://motto.time.com/4702985/sexist-language-that-hurts-women/) and [racist](http://motto.time.com/4604724/princeton-swimming-misogynistic-messages/) slurs to describe his colleagues. The Miami _Herald_ [reports](http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article145327079.html) that Republican State Sen. [Frank Artiles](http://frankartiles.com/) apologized for allegedly referring to his female colleague, Democratic State Sen. [Audrey Gibson](https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/s6), as a “b—”. He also referred to Republican Senate President Joe Negron as a “p—” and said that he was elected to his post by six “n—s” in the Republican caucus. “In an exchange with a colleague of mine in the Senate, I unfortunately let my temper get the best of me,” Artiles said in a statement, reported by the _Herald_. “There is no excuse for the exchange that occurred and I have apologized to my Senate colleagues and regret the incident profusely.” Artiles did not immediately respond to _Motto_’s request for comment. Gibson said that Artiles approached her at the Governor’s Club on Monday night and suggested “that a series of questions he’d asked of one of her bills earlier in the day were payback for questions she’d asked before of one of Artiles’ bills,” according to the _Herald_. During the course of that conversation, Gibson said that Artiles referred to her as a “f— a—le” and a “b—”. Gibson then complained about the exchange to Democratic State Sen. [Perry Thurston](https://www.flsenate.gov/Senators/s33), who was at a table nearby. Thurston said that Artiles told him he did not refer to Artiles as a “f— a—” and “b—“ but still apologized at Thurston’s suggestion. Later in the conversation with Thurston and Gibson — who are both black — Artiles then allegedly used the n-word. “I said, ‘Dude, did you say ‘niggers?’” the _Herald_ reports Thurston said. “‘No, I said ‘niggas,’ which is different in his mind,” Thurston finished. The Florida Democratic Party [called](http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2017/04/florida-democratic-party-calls-on-artiles-to-resign-following-tirade.html) on Artiles to resign on Tuesday night and the Black Caucus scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday. Negron said in [a statement](http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2017/04/negron-artiles-will-apologize-to-gibson-on-senate-floor.html) that Artiles will need to apologize to Gibson on the Senate floor on Wednesday. “Racial slurs and profane, sexist insults have no place in conversation between Senators and will not be tolerated while I am serving as Senate President,” Negron said. But — before Artiles issued his statement, — Gibson had said that an apology from her colleague would be meaningless. “I can’t remember a time in my life when anybody called me either one of those things,” she told the _Herald_. “It’s just the most disrespect I’ve ever encountered.” \[[The Miami _Herald_](http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/broward/article145327079.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4746309/frank-artiles-female-colleage-sexist-racist-slurs/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4746309/frank-artiles-female-colleage-sexist-racist-slurs/"},"headline":"Florida State Senator Who Allegedly Called His Female Colleague a ‘B-tch’ Apologizes","datePublished":"2017-04-19T16:43:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:29.489Z","description":"'There is no excuse for the exchange that occurred'","url":"https://time.com/4746309/frank-artiles-female-colleage-sexist-racist-slurs/","keywords":["motto","politics","Racism","sexism"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22fd0fc0d37e2b96/6988c391cd1bba5c4f704cde/frank-artiles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt22fd0fc0d37e2b96/6988c391cd1bba5c4f704cde/frank-artiles.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Frank Artiles","caption":"Frank Artiles","creditText":"Steve Cannon—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4746309/frank-artiles-female-colleage-sexist-racist-slurs/","name":"Florida State Senator Who Allegedly Called His Female Colleague a ‘B-tch’ Apologizes"}}]}] ```