Kane County Board member David Young, R-Plato Township, sought to clarify comments he made regarding shootings, the LGBTQ+ community and Democrats at recent committee meetings.

Young spoke as a citizen, not as a board member, at two 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.

After Young recited the details of recent shootings that apparently involved transgender people, he said: “The Democratic Party embraces this LGBTQ+ group, including a lot of people here on this Kane County Board. 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 tremendous pushback at later meetings, Young attempted to clarify.

“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 Young cited was the shooting of Kirk Sept. 10. Though the facts are still emerging regarding Kirk’s alleged killer, authorities have said his roommate and possible romantic partner is transgender, according to published reported.

“Those four who perpetrated [those shootings] are part of that group,” Young said. “My speech was about those individuals ... those specific instances.”

Young said blaming all LGBTQ+ people for the shootings would be like blaming all Black men for one person who allegedly stabbed a white woman on a train.

“Not all Black men are stabbing white women,” Young said.

County Board member Michael Linder, D-St. Charles, said he was skeptical about Young’s updated 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, who had described himself as a sixth-generation St. Charles resident – and a gay man – joined public pushback last week against Young’s comments.

“We have accepted him getting up and making these public comments and not answering them from the floor,” Linder said of Young. “And I did a public comment in response. He is not used to getting pushback. ... He knew what he was doing. He just didn’t think there would be pushback.”