Monday, January 25, 2010

Embarrassment in Loudoun County

Loudoun County, Virginia, is having a real problem with a real jerk. They're just a stone's throw across the river from us here in Montgomery County, Maryland, and we ought to be paying attention to their problem and how they are dealing with it. The Post had a summary Sunday.
Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene A. Delgaudio (R-Sterling), a longtime opponent of gay rights, is coming under increased criticism for recent comments viewed as homophobic and embarrassing to the community.

At a Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday, five of his board counterparts used personal time to chastise the Sterling supervisor for anti-gay comments. One member, Andrea McGimsey (D-Potomac), apologized that Delgaudio made some of the remarks from the board dais.

At a Jan. 6 meeting, supervisors voted to expand Loudoun's nondiscrimination policy to prohibit bias on the basis of sexual orientation in hiring by the county. Delgaudio fought the change in the meeting, saying he was especially offended by language in the measure that sought protection for transgendered people. In the debate, he called the board's attempt to protect transgendered people "freaky" and "bizarre." In a subsequent newsletter to supporters, Delgaudio wrote that "if a man dressed as a woman wants a job, you have to treat 'it' the same as a normal person."

Those comments drew a sharp rebuke from the Loudoun Times-Mirror on Jan. 13. In an editorial, the paper scolded the supervisor for "sustained and unrestrained demagoguery targeting human beings." The paper called for an apology and went on to say it cringed "with embarrassment for the image of Loudoun" that the supervisor was projecting.

At the board meeting last week, other supervisors joined the criticism.

James Burton (I-Blue Ridge) said Delgaudio had "conducted himself in a manner best described in my opinion as histrionic, and his choice of words were and should have been an embarrassment to this board and to the county."

Burton challenged Delgaudio's use of the word "it" to describe transgendered people. "Regardless of how one may feel about the policy in question, there's no excuse for referring to fellow human beings as 'it,' " he said. The use of the word "it," he said, was "demeaning, insulting and dehumanizing." Loudoun Supervisor Delgaudio rebuked for anti-gay remarks

Delgaudio had issued a newsletter where he said:
“The board votes six yes, Waters and Delgaudio ‘no,’ with York abstaining, to add ’sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ to the hiring of employees which means if a man dressed as a woman wants a job, you have to treat ‘it’ the same as a normal person.”

The Loudon Times-Mirror said:
Delgaudio said he stands by the statement he made in the Jan. 5 meeting when he referred to the amendment as "freaky, bizarre and fruity."

The language, he said, was aimed at what he described as a militant group of individuals.

"It's freaky because most don't think about homosexuals," Delgaudio said. "It's bizarre because they want us to think about homosexuals." Group decries supervisor's comments

In an editorial, that same paper wrote:
Further, instead of using the personal pronouns of “him” or “her” during his remarks, Delgaudio preferred to use the term “it” to describe people who might be protected by the new county guidelines.

This was sustained and unrestrained demagoguery targeting human beings.

Delgaudio saw fit to drive the bigotry home – literally -- by sending a mass e-mail to residences across his district that went on to restate the same offensive terms, such as “cross dressing freaks,” and railing against how the county might now “have to treat ‘it’ the same as a normal person.”

Leniency has been granted to Delgaudio in the past for what has been described loosely as “clownish” behavior. We often hear, “Oh, that’s just Eugene.”

Not by us. Not this time. It’s time to say, "Enough." We cringe in embarrassment for the image of Loudoun in 2010 that this projects to the outside world.

These are comments unworthy of being spoken from the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors dais. 'It' is a shame, Supervisor Delgaudio

Let me point out that Equality Loudoun is pursuing this situation doggedly, with class and diligence. They are documenting everything this nut says, with quotes, newspaper articles, links to video. Delgaudio is a disgrace to whatever community he lives in. I don't know what it takes to remove a Loudoun County Supervisor from office, but I can guarantee you there are people over there looking into it.

28 Comments:

Blogger David Weintraub said...

I have to say, it was your experience with the showerheads in Montgomery that enabled me to prepare the supervisors for the nonsense they were going to hear from Delgaudio and Lori Waters (formerly head of Eagle Forum before she ran for office here).

I don't think they really believed me until they heard it for themselves. Delgaudio was not expecting the pushback he's getting from the public, his colleagues, the press. This is new, and quite gratifying.

January 25, 2010 10:19 PM  
Blogger JimK said...

That's the way it should be, we all learn from one anothers' experiences. Good luck -- it looks to me like the good guys have the upper hand at this point.

JimK

January 25, 2010 10:21 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Completely off topic and for Cynthia. not expecting answers (that's the experiment !), just general impressions.
we are going to start this shortly and I will be sure to let everyone know the results.

I was hoping to see what Cynthia thought of this ....this is written by a 14 year old with a few edits from parents.

Effectiveness of Residential Solar Panels in Maryland

The purpose of my experiment is to see whether a home made solar panel is just as effective as a pre-made solar panel. If the home made solar panel will work as well, it would be smart to build the solar panels because they are much less expensive. My hypothesis is that the pre-made solar panels will be better than the home built solar panels but not by more than 10%. Pre-built solar panels for homes are typically purchased in 175 watt increments. So I am going to try and build a 175 watt panel and compare it with a manufactured 175 watt panel. Sharp has a 2.5’ x 5’ 175 watt panel for 560.00 (in Arizona), Lowes claims to have 175 watt panels available for 893.00 around the country. The parts to build a solar panel appear to run about 200.00. Can you build one that will work close to as well as the pre-made solar panels? Will your home made panels still qualify you for the close to $20,000 in tax credits Maryland, Montgomery County and the federal government are offering?

1. Are Solar Panels Effective?
2. Will Solar Panels pay for themselves?
3. How long until home made solar panel pays for itself?
4. How much time does it take to make a solar panel?
5. How long until manufactured solar panels pay for themselves?
6. How many solar panels would it take on a sunny day to power an average household in Maryland?
7. How well do solar panels work in Maryland?
8. How much does the orientation of the panel have to do with the electricity generated?
9. How long until solar panels wear out? Do they break easily ?
10. How much does it cost to maintain a solar panel?

January 26, 2010 12:37 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"it was your experience with the showerheads in Montgomery that enabled me to prepare the supervisors"

You mean when the CRG peacefully collected petitions to overturn a completely unnecessary law?

Is your government also planning to misinform petitioners about the requirements to get on the ballot to trick them into not getting enough signatures and then send a transgender employed by the county government out to harass petitioners and tell business owners they are allowing illegal petitioning?

Maybe said transgender will be the only one to file a complaint under said bill and then be found guilty of unethical and undemocratic behavior.

That would be quite an experience!

January 26, 2010 7:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

you think Massachusetts was a nightmare for Dems?

since the current POTUS, VP and Secretary of State were all Senators, their former seats are all held by unelected individuals

could the seats of this triumvirate also go Repub?

with Beau Biden pulling out of the race yesterday, Delaware is likely to fall to Repubs

in Illinois, the likely Dem nominee is tarnished by association with Blago and Burris

in New York, the appointee runs poorly in polls against Guliani or Pataki and may be another Coakley if an unknown Repub surfaces

imagine that

Obama, Biden and Hillary Clinton all cleared out of the Senate to be replaced by Repubs

January 26, 2010 8:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Anonymous"
It's way beyond time for you to GET OVER IT!

Completely irrational: "Is your government also planning to misinform petitioners about the requirements to get on the ballot to trick them into not getting enough signatures and then send a transgender employed by the county government out to harass petitioners and tell business owners they are allowing illegal petitioning?" (Did I miss a reference to a petition process in the blog entry "Embarrassment in Loudoun County"?)


Your OBSESSION with transgender people is indicative of the presence of a mental illness that can be alleviated if you would get yourself to a qualified therapist.

ENOUGH with your rants and cry-baby mewlings. Time to move on in your life.

January 26, 2010 9:50 AM  
Anonymous svelte_brunette said...

Solar Anon Asked:

“I was hoping to see what Cynthia thought of this ....this is written by a 14 year old with a few edits from parents.”

Hi Solar Anon! These are EXCELLENT questions to ask, and I’m VERY curious to find out the results from your experiment! Your 14 year old has taken on an ambitious project and I’m sure everyone involved will learn a tremendous amount. From a classroom / grading perspective, I don’t know that you’ll be able to fully answer questions 9 and 10 before the teacher will need to grade the project. I don’t know if this is an issue for your intrepid student or not.

Other questions I would be interested in are things like “how many batteries do you need to keep running through the night, or through cloudy days?” “How does one size the battery system?” “How long are the batteries expected to last?”

During the course of your project you’re going to have hundreds of other questions like “what is the best construction technique for sealing the panels?” and “How do I accurately measure power output?” Details of the answers will provide reams of information for a great report. There is a white-paper on small solar cell set up using a Fresnel mirror at:

http://www.mantaro.com/downloads/Using_a_Solar_Concentrator_with_Photovoltaic_Cells.pdf

It’s not exactly what you’re doing, but you’ll need to do the same kind of voltage and power measurements carried out in this paper. It might be useful to look at for background information.

It sounds like a wonderful project – it has inspired me to see if I can’t come up with a smaller-scale version of your endeavor for the precocious kids at my church. (They’ve already tried a simple bio-gas experiment.)

Good luck on your project and let me know if there is anything else I can do to help!

Take care,

Cynthia

January 26, 2010 9:53 AM  
Anonymous Robert said...

Eugene Delgaudio is an embarrassment to our species.

January 26, 2010 10:00 AM  
Blogger David Weintraub said...

Dear Showerhead,

Let me explain what I mean so you will no longer have to speculate. I explained to our supervisors that, based on the experience in Montgomery County, what they would likely hear from their anti-equality colleagues was a histrionic tirade containing such epithets as "men in dresses." I told them that they would hear the insufferably silly notion that men will suddenly start dressing up as women and invading ladies' restrooms. I did not predict use of the term "fruity," but I am only human.

I also didn't predict this - and I think our guy might have pulled ahead of you folks in the race to be the most comically unhinged. This appeared in an actual Eugene Delgaudio "newsletter":

"But if we allow Loudoun County to hire men who wear dresses, we may someday require men to wear dresses. The line has to be drawn somewhere."

Let's see if you all can catch up.

January 26, 2010 10:42 AM  
Anonymous PasserBy said...

There you go, Anon -- think you can out-do that one?

January 26, 2010 10:52 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Eugene Delgaudio is an embarrassment to our species."

What species are you, Robbie?

I thought you were a robot following your TTF programming.

"Let me explain what I mean so you will no longer have to speculate. I explained to our supervisors that, based on the experience in Montgomery County, what they would likely hear from their anti-equality colleagues was a histrionic tirade containing such epithets as "men in dresses.""

I bet that shocked them.

Transgenders referred to as "men in dresses".

The noive....

btw, aren't transgenders sometimes men in dresses?

"I told them that they would hear the insufferably silly notion that men will suddenly start dressing up as women and invading ladies' restrooms."

Don't you want men to have that right?

I think you do.

You just engage in a rhetorical slight of hand by saying that if men dress up as women and go in ladies' rooms, then they aren't men anymore because real men don't want to do that.

No one's fooled, DW.

January 26, 2010 11:27 AM  
Blogger David Weintraub said...

Dear Showerhead,

It's difficult to believe that a person could actually be serious about the absurd things you say here. But I'll humor you, this time.

The only circumstance I can think of in which a transgender person could be "a man in dress" is if a transgender man is crossdressing. That's likely pretty rare, but certainly could happen around Halloween.

Why you would believe that anyone - least of all me, a complete stranger - would specifically want men to have the "right" to use the ladies' room...well, I just don't know. That's a very peculiar accusation, hence my difficulty believing that you're serious. I hope that you can explain yourself.

January 26, 2010 11:41 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

well, I don't know about "peculiar" but I didn't, in fact, make that accusation

January 26, 2010 12:16 PM  
Anonymous Robert said...

Anonymous,

Are you a robot fan? I just loved Susan Calvin: quirky, unapologetic, and almost always right.

rrjr

January 26, 2010 4:56 PM  
Blogger David Weintraub said...

Really? In that case, I was responding to the *other* anonymous.

"Don't you want men to have that right?

I think you do."

January 27, 2010 11:07 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I like this Delgaudio guy.

I heard McDonnell is planning on naming him to a post in the state government.

Good luck, Eugene!

January 28, 2010 12:06 PM  
Blogger David Weintraub said...

Perhaps this will help with your problem, then:

http://bit.ly/d7uxRk

It's always the same story, told different ways.

January 28, 2010 2:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

could you tell us what that is, David?

I'll worry I'll be exposed to a virus if I look at this gay agenda stuff on the internet.

January 28, 2010 2:32 PM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

Thanks David. I've brought that profound story about Alex's life and his idea to create hate-free schools in Richmond for Vigilance readers to enjoy.

Goodbye Alex, The World Will Miss You

The human community lost a great soul this morning. Alexander Lebenstein, of Haltern-am-See, Germany and Richmond, Virginia, USA, died at the age of 82. We will all miss Alex, even those of us who never had the joy of meeting him.

Alex was eleven years old the night of November 10, 1938, when the nation-wide anti-Jewish riot in Germany commonly known as Kristalnacht reached his town. He and his parents were driven from their home and were able to survive by hiding in a depression in the Jewish cemetery. After the violence subsided, the few remaining Jews in Haltern were moved into a small ghetto. In January 1942, the Lebensteins and the other two remaining Jews in the town were shipped by cattle-car to Riga, Latvia, a trip that took more than five days. Alex spent the rest of World War II in various slave-labor and concentration camps. Neither of his parents survived the war. Alex immigrated to the United States in 1947. He established a career and a family. However, he spent the next thirty-five years filled with anger and hate for all things German.

In 1987, Alex discovered that the government of Haltern-am-See was trying to contact him, the only survivor of the town’s Jewish community. Apparently, they wanted him to return to Haltern so they could make amends. Alex told them he would never return to Germany. In 1994, however, when the children of Haltern wrote to Alex, asking him to come help them learn about the Holocaust, he reluctantly agreed to go. And that was when he found his calling. Working with the children of Haltern helped him to overcome his anger. It also began his campaign against hate, which lasted for the rest of his life.

January 28, 2010 5:08 PM  
Anonymous Aunt Bea said...

I met Alex a couple of years ago when my wife started working at the Virginia Holocaust Museum. Here was this big line-backer sized guy that you really expected to be mean and tough. But, out of his mouth came only love and gentleness. Alex was a whirlwind going from school to school, both in Richmond and elsewhere, spreading his message of tolerance to our young people. He also used his life story to help some schools deal with racial conflict, teaching what happens when we let hate control us. His late-found gift of communicating with young people made Alex one of those people that the world can use a lot more of.

I last saw Alex less than two weeks ago. He came onto the second floor of the museum (Alex always used the stairs, not the elevator) but without his usual broad smile. I asked him how he was and he replied “Not too well.” I didn’t know it but Alex was suffering from acute abdominal pain. An aneurism was badly leaking blood into his belly. Yet Alex continued with his plan to attend a meeting of teachers at the museum. After the meeting I took a group of those teachers on a tour of the museum, not knowing that I would never see Alex again.

When I was training to be a docent at the Virginia Holocaust Museum, I was lucky enough to shadow Alex on a tour. He was amazing. Afterward, I told him that I was afraid that I would never be able to tell the Holocaust story as well as he could. He replied that we each had to tell the story in our own way. He reminded me that it was important that I continued telling the story when he was no longer able to. He also told me to make sure that I found others to continue telling the story after I could no longer tell it. Now, when I end tours of children at the museum, I stress to them that they have two responsibilities—to tell the story and to speak out against oppression.

Alex left us with one unfinished goal. He wanted to start a program of hate-free schools, starting in the Richmond area. Under Alex’s idea, children at a school would be taught the message of tolerance and acceptance. Then their school could display the “hate-free school” sign next to their “drug-free” or “crime-free” signs. We need to implement Alex’s plan.


Don't give into your irrational fear, Anone. It's only one man's germ of an idea to teach kids to treat each other with dignity rather than derision.

January 28, 2010 5:08 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

irrational?

seems like I'm always having to remove viruses after visiting this site

DW didn't tell us what the subject was so, for all I know, it was a gay porn site

I think a good rule is to either cut and paste what you feel is important or describe what the link is to

YEAH!

btw, we haven't been hearing much from you lately, AB

January 28, 2010 5:35 PM  
Anonymous Robert said...

Anonymous, do you know you're kind of a cretin? There is some dark scar on your soul. What happened to you?

Thanks for the story, David and Bea.

January 28, 2010 6:11 PM  
Anonymous Robert said...

Anonymous, do you know you're kind of a cretin? There is some dark scar on your soul. What happened to you?

Thanks for the story, David and Bea.

January 28, 2010 6:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cynthia.

I will absolutely let you know how we make out....

I am hoping this works !

Not convinced given the number of trees we have and the orientation of our house that I have a very ideal scenario.

BUT.
we are going to get some great data and the kids will learn a lot.


thanks again for the help !

January 29, 2010 12:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Anonymouse"
You said: "seems like I'm always having to remove viruses after visiting this site"

What better reason could you give for NOT visiting this site? No doubt you have also been infected with some sort of nefarious STI from this notorious sex blog site.
Best to stay away from here!

January 29, 2010 10:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

LIFE IS SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED

January 29, 2010 10:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

TTFism is contagious!

January 29, 2010 12:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Local Sterling residents have begun a serious effort for the removal of Delgaudio from office. View the petition here:

www.ipetitions.com/petition/sterlingvirginia

March 16, 2010 11:36 PM  

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