This is the third in our series of interviews with the candidates for Loudoun County Sheriff. For the previous interviews and background, see:
Greg Ahlemann talks about his tattoo, hate crimes, community policing and more
Sheriff Steve Simpson: “I’m concerned about the message that comes out of this office.”
Please leave your questions for Mike George in the comments.
Another update: Hat tip to Blueweeds for coining a new term to describe this behavior, characteristic of those stuck in a by-gone era in which it was still effective: gay-boating.
Update: Washington Blade coverage here.
This time, from Senator Jay O’Brien in Fairfax. This pathetic behavior follows on the heels of an earlier “round of dubious campaigning” covered here and in the Washington Blade. Shameful.
Read O’Brien’s mail piece. He actually describes support for age-appropriate Family Life Education, which is already mandated by the Virginia code, as “forcing public schools to teach alternative lifestyles in the classroom,” and “teach[ing] Virginia students about the ‘GLBT’ lifestyle [sic] during school hours.” And I guess somebody needs to explain to the Senator that allowing students to have Gay/Straight Alliances isn’t optional either. That’s mandated by federal law. This piece would be funny, if…well, if lying to voters was ever funny.
From Equality Virginia PAC:
O’Brien Yields to Temptation to Go Anti-Gay
Mail Piece Distorts Quotes from Candidate George Barker to Attack Tolerance Education
Under pressure in a race that appears “too close to call,” Senate incumbent Jay O’Brien (R-Clifton) this week succumbed to the temptation of using gay-bashing as a political tactic.
O’Brien sent voters in his district mail that distorts comments made by challenger George Barker at a candidate forum hosted by Equality Fairfax and sponsored by Equality Virginia.
O’Brien’s literature, which was paid for by the Republican Party of Virginia, claims that Barker wants to “teach children to accept the Gay, Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Lifestyle,” and that he wants to “force public schools” to teach “alternative lifestyles” over the objections of parents.
In fact, Barker’s comments were supportive of age appropriate family life education (from which any parent may opt his/her children out), high school clubs that support equal treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth and Virginia’s participation in a nationwide Center for Disease Control survey that seeks to document risky behavior by teens.
“It’s unfortunate that Senator O’Brien and the Republican Party of Virginia are seeking to gain political advantage by misleading voters and demonizing gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Virginians, and particularly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth who are at increased risk of intimidation, violence, feelings of isolation and even suicide,” said Dyana Mason, Equality Virginia Executive Director. “Since Senator O’Brien chose not to attend the candidate forum in question, this mail piece only underscores that the Senator is not interested in representing all of his constituents equally.”
Earlier this campaign season, Equality Virginia PAC, joined by the Virginia Partisans Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club and the Log Cabin Republican Club of Virginia, sent a letter to all candidates for the House of Delegates urging them to avoid using anti-gay rhetoric in their campaigns this year. Such conduct is considered unethical by the American Association of Political Consultants, and has backfired against other candidates including House of Delegates candidate Lynn Chapman who used a gay-baiting question during a “push poll” over the summer.
“We were hoping that candidates would get the message from our letter, and, more importantly, from the defeat of Dick Black and Brad Marrs in 2005, that using anti-gay campaign tactics polarizes and divides voters and is not a successful path to victory on election night,” said David Lampo, EV PAC Chair and Log Cabin Republican Vice-President. “We call on Senator O’Brien and the Republican Party of Virginia to denounce such tactics and this mail piece as offensive, inaccurate and misleading, and we encourage all Virginians to become educated on the real records and positions of both Sen. O’Brien and his challenger, George Barker and to vote on November 6th.”
Paid for and Authorized by Equality Virginia PAC, Inc.
For those of you who may live in or travel through Sterling Park, and are wondering “who are these people with Eugene Delgaudio signs in their yards,” this is absolutely priceless.
A full time job that consists of lying about the GLBT community for monetary gain is bad enough, but I’m pretty sure this constitutes criminal behavior:
I just got back from my first “official” investigative trip to Sterling Park (SP). While driving through SP over the past few weeks I had noticed the Delgaudio signs in a couple of yards and stopped to chat. Today I visited 14 homes. I would have stopped at more but it got too dark and too rainy. Here is a summary of the results (I have the addresses and some names but I’m not listing them here):
Only one home actually had a registered voter living there. I spoke with him and he is very aware of the situation and said that he takes the sign down from his front lawn almost every day and another sign appears the next morning. He showed me a pile of 6 signs he has removed.
Most of the homes I visited were right on Sterling Blvd. I picked the homes that I stopped at based on two things, the first being that they had obvious violations, the second being an obvious indication that Latinos live there (bumper stickers on cars, seeing people out in the yard, etc).
The first four homes all said basically the same thing, which was someone came by and asked if they could put the sign there and they all said yes. None of them knew who Delgaudio is nor did they know about the local elections.
Six homes all said that they just woke up and the signs were in the yard. This is tricky though. In one of those cases a sheepish room mate admitted that someone had knocked on the door and said something he did not understand at all and then planted the sign.
Two homes said that they were under the distinct impression that they were required to have the sign up (both homes on Church Street). One person understood that Delgaudio was the Supervisor and as such “nosotros tenemos que siguiere sus ordenes” or “we have to follow his orders”. The other person was told by a friend that she would be fined if she took it down.
The last group of homes I stopped at talked about a guy coming by asking for permission to put the sign up and said that he would be inviting them all to a big party to which they could bring their families to and get plenty of free food.
It seems like homes in the same area are being told the same things. I have a name of a family that I plan to talk to tomorrow who says that they were actually told they would be fined $50 if the sign comes down. I have not verified this first hand yet.
Everyone I spoke to was horrified when I told them Delgaudio’s position on illegal immigration and shared some of his quotes.
The funniest thing I heard was one of a group of guys who described the person who put the sign in the yard as being, “Un flaco, todo raro, creo que era maricon, por su forma de caminar y hablar pues.” translated: “A skinny guy, really weird, I think he was gay because of the way that he walked and talked.” Could this have been Delgaudio himeslf? Who knows…
Posted by: Laura Valle
This is the second of three interviews Equality Loudoun is conducting with the candidates for Loudoun County Sheriff. The first interview, with Republican Greg Ahlemann, came about because of a rumor about his tattoo that was posted here in a comment. Having given Greg a forum to address that rumor and answer other questions, it seemed only fair to contact the other candidates as well.
Sheriff Simpson decided to declare his candidacy as an Independent after being defeated by Greg Ahlemann at the Republican convention.
We were highly critical of the excessive law enforcement response to the Soulforce Equality Ride earlier this year, so we started by talking about that.
We arranged the following interview (below the fold) with Republican candidate for Sheriff Greg Ahlemann after he requested that we correct the record regarding a pseudonymous comment made on our blog. The comment, to this post about one of the anti-gay ads run by his father, Pastor Jay Ahlemann, contained the statement that Greg is “homophobic and racist” and has a tattoo that he doesn’t want anyone to see.
Greg approached Equality Loudoun at the Leesburg 4th of July parade, introduced himself, and showed his tattoo (which he describes as “kind of a logo for my life”) to some of our members. However, even people who have seen it have questions about the meaning of the tattoo, and different rumors continue to appear in other venues. I suggested to Greg that the best thing for him to do would be to show that he isn’t hiding anything, and invited him to explain what it means to him. I did ask him for permission to post a photo. He declined, with the rationale that anyone could grab the photo from our website and use it out of context. That seems to me to be a very reasonable concern.
Lacking a photo, here is a description: The tattoo covers his left forearm, and consists of, from left to right, an Israeli flag, a cross, and an American flag. Underneath are the words “Just Stand.”
Some of Greg’s supporters have tried to squelch any discussion of what this symbol might mean by saying that it represents his faith and that should be the end of it. In particular, this commenter illustrates why that is problematic:
David, I fly the Stars and Bars (First National, second version of the flag of the Confederacy). If you saw that, would you start a rumor that I was pro-slave/anti-Negro? If you talked to me and I told you that I am just a good ol’ Southern boy, would you then invite me to explain the flag flying on you site? If I have explained to you what it stands for, the issue is dead…There is no hidden “klan” tendencies, anti-American beliefs or racial bigotry.
The answer to his first question is no – just as I did not start the rumor about Greg Ahlemann, I would not start a rumor about him, whoever he is.
The answer to his second question is yes. If he were a public figure who had been anonymously attacked on our blog, I would invite him to explain his understanding of the symbol he has chosen to display, and what it means to him. That would simply be fairness to him.
However, the problem in his thinking is revealed by the statement that once he has declared what the symbol means to him, “the issue is dead.” Symbols can mean different things depending on one’s standpoint, the Confederate flag being an excellent example. For this person, the flag may signify heritage, or whatever it is he means to convey by the phrase “good ol’ Southern boy.” It is entirely possible that for him, personally, there are no “hidden ‘klan’ tendencies, anti-American beliefs or racial bigotry,” and yet that the display of this symbol conveys those very ideas to someone else. To an African-American person who has experienced the racial violence and oppression that has haunted the American South in the last century, the flag may signify terrorism. They are very different subjective experiences of the same symbol.
The symbol on Greg’s arm has led some people to accuse him of being a “religious extremist.” Indeed, that specific combination of elements has been adopted by a political movement that welcomes escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and sees the U.S. as engaged in a Holy War. To understand this reaction, please watch this video recorded during the July conference of Christians United for Israel. There is a vicious strain of homophobia associated with this movement, too; pay attention to the t-shirt the man at the end of the video is wearing.
Please understand that I am NOT suggesting that Greg Ahlemann shares these views; he speaks for himself about his beliefs in the interview. What I am saying is that there are valid reasons for some people to be alarmed by the tattoo – especially in the context of Jay Ahlemann’s ads and statements.
I have a lot of respect for Greg for his willingness to sit down with us and talk about these issues. He probably will lose some points with the hardcore anti-gay extremists just for doing that. He has also agreed to check back here and answer questions – so if you have any, please leave them as comments.
The complainers who object to other people’s children having access to a humane, factually accurate human sexuality curriculum have lost in court again.
On Tuesday, the Maryland Court of Appeals denied the stay sought by Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum, PFOX, and Family Leader Network that would have blocked implementation of the new Montgomery County curriculum. The atrociously written legal petition filed by this tiresome threesome is discussed further in the comments section here. We’d still like to know how much of a hand Lynn Chapman had in this nonsense.
Tonight, Loudoun County residents can hear first hand from one of the people who helped get Montgomery’s excellent curriculum up and running, PFLAG-MD’s David Fishback. He will be on a panel discussion of sexuality education in Loudoun County Public Schools, along with LCPS specialists in the Family Life Education program, and Moira Gaul of Family Research Council (an arm of the anti-gay Focus on the Family franchise). The panel is presented by the Loudoun Education Alliance of Parents.
“Everything your Child Knows, and You’re Afraid to Ask” – A look at LCPS Family Life Education (FLE)
LEAP will present a straightforward discussion about the development and use of our FLE (Family Life Education) curriculum. Our varied panel of speakers will present information and take questions regarding the current LCPS policies, recent controversies, and medical data related to sex-education in the schools today.
Wednesday, October 10
7:30 pm
LCPS Administration Bldg.
21000 Education Court
Ashburn, Virginia 20148
Click for a map
Finally getting the picture?
“Gay Bashing Not Effective Campaign Tactic,” says the post-election Equality Virginia press release, included below. It remains to be seen whether the lesson will sink in this time, but it’s becoming clear that voters in Virginia no longer reliably respond to attempts to divide us with the use of childish, anti-gay slurs. They are unamused by these attempts to distract them from serious issues.**
A historical note: A little more than four years ago, Jonathan and I attended a meeting of the Loudoun County Republican Committee that had been publicly advertised as a forum for school board candidates. Instead, a young Patrick Henry College student named Eve Marie Barner introduced a resolution demanding that the Supreme Court reverse its decision in Lawrence v Texas, and “return to the sound precedent” of permitting law enforcement officers to force their way into private bedrooms and arrest people for having consensual sex. That meeting, which inspired the founding of Equality Loudoun, soon deteriorated into an embarrassing debacle in which angry people debated 1) whether it would be possible to support Ms. Barner’s resolution without being labeled grotesque religious extremists, and 2) whether that mattered. Those who believe that the Republican Party’s proper role is to enforce religious prejudice via public policy – known as the “Black Brigade” – won that argument, and this faction has retained its power in spite of the detested Dick Black’s loss to David Poisson in 2005.
In the wake of this year’s Republican losses, the argument continues. What went wrong this time? Is openly being the Sex Police Party the problem, or is it the solution? Weeping over their statewide losses, the anti-gay Some Families Foundation chose Door Number Two:
Not everyone is this out of touch with reality. Following its crushing losses in this election and attempted violation of state party rules, it is very likely that the Loudoun County Republican Committee will be disbanded and reconstituted with new leadership. The obviously needed reordering of priorities along more sensible lines will finally make it possible for Republican Equality Loudoun members and supporters to participate in their local party. We strongly encourage our Republican friends to get involved at the very beginning of this process, and help rebuild and guide the new LCRC back to the principles of individual liberty and limited government. We will all benefit from an environment in which both political parties can engage in real policy debate, and not have one of them off in the weeds nattering about “protecting marriage” or whatever the wedge issue of the moment is.
Stay tuned.
**The aberration here in Loudoun is the Sterling district, where professional gay-basher Eugene Delgaudio narrowly won reelection by directing his venom at immigrants instead of GLBT people. Because the scapegoating of other people for political gain has certain universal qualities, this required very little recalibration. We extend our condolences to those in the district who tried to rid themselves of this now impotent screamer.