Residents denounce county board member’s transphobic remarks at public health committee

Dozens of residents used the public comment period at the Sept. 17 Kane County Public Health Committee meeting to condemn remarks by County Board member David Young that several speakers described as transphobic and misleading.

Speakers said Young used recent mass-shooting incidents to tie violence to transgender people and repeatedly framed transgender people as a threat. Several commenters said the statements were inaccurate and dangerous and urged the county to prioritize proven violence-prevention steps such as gun-safety measures and mental-health supports.

Why it matters: Public comment sessions are a formal part of county meetings where residents expect to raise community concerns to elected officials. Multiple speakers told the committee that repeated statements by an elected county official identifying transgender people as a source of mass violence heighten stigma and risk for a small, vulnerable group and distract from policy actions that could reduce gun deaths.

At the start of the public-comment period, David Young read a series of incidents and identified several perpetrators by name and gender history. Those passages were challenged by later speakers as inaccurate and inflammatory.

Tricia Miller, who identified herself as "a current resident of Geneva and a professional," said Young’s remarks were “demeaning, hateful, and filled to the brim with fallacies and propaganda,” and cited national data to say transgender people represent a very small share of mass-shooting perpetrators. “That leaves over 4,100 mass shootings that involved cisgendered individuals, majority of whom were white men,” Miller said.

Denise Stiebel told the committee Young was repeatedly using committee time for partisan attacks and warned that “political activity during compensated time is prohibited” and that county rules allow a chair to stop disruptive or discriminatory remarks. “Your words are dangerous. Very dangerous,” Stiebel said.

Several speakers, including Mavis Spates and Paula Merrington, urged the board to focus on common-sense gun reforms, mental-health services and evidence-based prevention rather than what they called scapegoating. “With Mr. Young’s newly found enthusiasm for addressing gun violence … I look forward to hearing his proposals for how we address this national scourge,” Merrington said, and also asked Young for an apology to transgender residents.

Chair Cheryl Strathman managed the public-comment queue and ended the period before moving on to the rest of the agenda; the remarks by residents were not the subject of any immediate formal action by the committee.

The meeting record shows no resolution, referral or staff assignment in response to the public comments during the Sept. 17 session. Several speakers said they want the board to pursue concrete steps — such as gun-safety measures and mental-health investments — and some urged accountability for the board member’s public statements.

The committee’s agenda continued after public comment with routine reports and scheduled presentations.

(Reporting note: claims about specific incidents and perpetrators were made by a public commenter and were challenged by other public commenters. This article attributes those claims to the speakers who made them rather than presenting disputed assertions as verified fact.)