This post has been updated.
Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling) has never been shy about expressing his anti-gay opinions. Through his conservative nonprofit organization, Public Advocate of the United States, he has vehemently condemned any social or political development – from airport pat-down safety procedures, to anti-bullying legislation, to annual pirate festivals – that he deems part of a “homosexual agenda.”
As a result of those declarations, Delgaudio’s Falls Church-based organization was recently added to a list of designated hate groups compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an internationally recognized nonprofit civil rights organization.
Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio has a long history of anti-gay sentiments. (Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post)
Citing the SPLC report, Loudoun Democrats on Monday called for Delgaudio’s resignation.
Evan Macbeth, chairman of the Loudoun County Democratic Committee, said the time has come for Delgaudio, who won his fourth term as supervisor in November, to step down.
“Loudoun County is no place for hatred and bigotry,” Macbeth said in a statement Monday. “The people of Loudoun deserve much better from their elected leaders than Eugene Delgaudio.”
Macbeth said he hoped that Delgaudio’s colleagues and Republican leaders would also call for his resignation in light of the development.
“I am certain they understand the implications of the leader of a hate group continuing to serve as a Loudoun County supervisor,” he said.
But Mark Sell, chairman of the Loudoun County Republican Committee, instead denounced an online petition created by Macbeth and circulated by Loudoun Democrats, demanding Delgaudio’s resignation.
“It is not surprising to me that the Loudoun County Democrats are circulating petitions regarding this issue,” Sell said in a statement Monday. “This will probably be the first of many attacks on sitting Republican elected officials. These types of attacks only take focus away from the issues Loudoun County residents are concerned about, such as education, transportation and taxes.”
Delgaudio could not be immediately reached for comment.
In the past, Delgaudio has told The Post that he believes that controversy over his anti-gay statements was really about his dual roles as supervisor and founder of Public Advocate, stating that critics voiced “angst over a conservative having two jobs.”
Following a flurry of media attention after writing an e-mail in December 2010 claiming that the Transportation Safety Administration's pat down safety procedures at airports are part of a "homosexual agenda,” Delgaudio told The Post that his views should not come as a surprise to anyone.
His constituents have repeatedly elected him despite the criticism, he pointed out.
“I think my constituents know that I have a novel way of looking at liberal orthodoxy," Delgaudio said.
