Kane County Board member clarifies comments about LGBTQ+ community, shootings
Kane County Board member David Young is seeking to clarify recent comments he made regarding shootings, the LGBTQ+ community and Democrats.
The Plano Township Republican spoke last week as a citizen, not as a board member, at committee meetings, where he appeared to blame the LGBTQ+ community, transgender people and Democrats for school shootings and the Sept. 10 killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
“The Democratic Party embraces this LGBTQ+ group, including a lot of people here on this Kane County Board,” Young said. “They embrace the culture of death. They embrace evil. I want to know when — when — will this group, this evil group, be denounced by any leader of the Democratic Party.”
After facing tremendous pushback, Young attempted to clarify over the weekend.
“I can see where people thought I meant the whole LGBTQ+ community,” Young said in a telephone interview Sunday. “They are not the evil group. ... They are not evil and want to kill people.”
Instead, Young said he was referring to four specific cases that apparently involved transgender suspects, including shootings at a Christian school in Nashville in 2023 and a Catholic school in Minneapolis in August, and the killing of Kevin Doherty in August in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.
The fourth that Young cited was the shooting of Kirk on Sept. 10. Although the facts are still emerging regarding Kirk’s alleged killer, authorities have said his roommate and possible romantic partner is transgender, according to published reports.
“Those four who perpetrated [those shootings] are part of that group,” Young said. “My speech was about those individuals ... those specific instances.”
County board member Michael Linder, a St. Charles Democrat, said he was skeptical about Young’s clarification.
“I think he has been pretty direct,” Linder said. “His thing was pretty hateful and pretty direct. It was wrong of him to use Charlie Kirk’s death as a reason to vilify Democrats and this board and the LGBTQ+ community.”
Linder said that Young “knew what he was doing” when he made the initial remarks. “He just didn’t think there would be pushback.”