Illinois-Based Civil Rights Agenda Calls For Resignation Of Sheriff Scheiferdecker; Made Anti-Gay, Anti-Semantic Comments On Facebook Post

The Journal Courier reports that condemnation continues to grow over a Facebook comment by a west-central Illinois sheriff, drawing fire Saturday from a state-wide gay and lesbian group. Schuyler County Sheriff Don Scheiferdecker commented on the picture of a co-worker, jokingly calling him a “little fag Jew boy.” He insists that the comment was meant to be private and he did not realize his account was public and available for anyone to see since he is relatively new to Facebook. By late Saturday, he had deleted his Facebook account. The Civil Rights Agenda, an Illinois lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group, issued a call for his resignation Saturday. The organization was founded about a year ago to do educational and political outreach in Illinois and was instrumental in passing a civil union bill signed by Governor Pat Quinn in January, Executive Director Anthony Martinez said. This is the first time it has called for someone’s resignation. Martinez said that “When a comment is made in jest to a friend, that’s one thing when you’re a citizen, but when you’re an elected official who is looked to protect the citizens of Illinois, that position comes with a fair amount of responsibility. For us, looking at that comment, there’s really no way, being in that position, to publicly state something overtly like that and not have it be over the line.” In the past year, the Civil Rights Agenda has pushed for a heightened awareness of bullying toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of Illinois, including rural places where such advocacy was previously not as available, Martinez said. He added that as executive director, he attempts to separate his emotional capacity and personal feelings from such comments and tries to approach it thinking of people in the community who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and might have to interact with the sheriff. “For me, it’s more about wanting to give a voice to them and help put this out in front as something that is not justifiable in any way,” Martinez said. “We have to show that these comments cannot be made in this way on this medium.” Scott Thompson, mayor of Rushville in Schuyler County, criticized the sheriff’s remark, noting on the city’s Facebook page that “Don is my friend but I will not speak to his heart or thoughts. I do however want to speak to my responsibility as mayor. I do not condone language which conveys discrimination or prejudice due to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion or national origin. Such language would reflect poorly upon the individual and the community.” Scheiferdecker has been the sheriff of Schuyler County for more than 30 years. The Schuyler County Board has not made any decision about the post, board member Max McClelland saying that “We don’t have all the details right now, so we can’t comment until we see all the details.”