Va Pol Under Fire for Transphobia

Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio of suburban Loudoun County, Va., is in trouble for harsh statements he made in opposition to legal protections for transgender people.

The issue emerged as the board of supervisors voted on Wednesday to include sexual minorities in the county's workplace discrimination policy, an expansion Delguadio described as "bizarre," The Washington Post reports. The Republican from Sterling said in his newsletter that under the new provisions, "if a man dressed as a woman wants a job, you have to treat 'it' the same as a normal person."

Delguadio has subsequently been blasted by fellow supervisors, including James Burton, who called his choice of words "an embarrassment to this board and to the county." These concerns were echoed by the Loudoun Times-Mirror, which condemned his statements as "sustained and unrestrained demagoguery targeting human beings."

In an apology that failed to impress fellow board members, Delguadio defended his "strong words" against the "real-life Tootsies ... and to all their defenders who are calling me all sorts of names." He has since been quoted as saying that "I do everything I do on purpose" and blames the board environment on a December controversy that resulted in "taking away the Nativity [scene]" from the county courthouse.

In the wake of the vote expanding the antidiscrimination policy, Supervisor Andrea McGimsey asserted that Delgaudio's actions "prove why we needed to institute the policy that we did the other day" and went on to apologize to "anyone who has listened to this."