Antisemitic and homophobic flyers were left in the driveways of homes in Springfield and Sully, Va., on Wednesday.
The flyers used derogatory language, targetted Fairfax County School Board members and called them “Jew-inspired, communist, queer-loving sex fiends.” The note was accredited to members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Board members spoke out about the incident at a meeting on Thursday evening.
Board member Laura Jane Cohen (Springfield District) said hateful incidents like this have happened more often in Fairfax County and Loudoun County in the past few weeks.
“We’re reminded once again of the importance of what we all do here,” she said. “Those messages were targeted to all of us up here on this dais no matter where we come from, no matter what we look like. The hate was equally distributed to every one of us.”
Board member Karl Frisch (Providence District) said not much has changed since his experience with homophobia in the 1980s.
“Hate groups like the Klan seek to terrorize entire groups of people with their actions,” he said. “In the spirit of Stonewall, I won’t be backing down”
Frisch also tweeted about the incident on Wednesday.
“If the Klan is calling our School Board a bunch of “Jew-Inspired, Communist, Queer-Loving Sex Fiends,” we must be doing something right,” the tweet read.
The attack was particularly insidious because there is a Jewish board member representing the district where the incident took place, said Guila Franklin Siegel, associate director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington in a statement on Thursday.
“We are horrified at this expression of hate and at the targeting of elected officials,” the statement said. “Our leaders should not have to endure threats of this kind and such virulent hate has no place in our community.”
