'Big Fat Lesbians' Facebook Comment Lands Illinois Official in Hot Water

GENESEO, IL -- It was a Valentine's Day "cutest couple" contest, but it left one Illinois elected official with less than warm and fuzzy feelings.

Henry County Board member Jacob Waller reportedly took to social media after a photo of a lesbian couple got more votes in a local radio station "Cutest Couple" contest than a photo he'd submitted of his family, according to WQAD.

"Help us beat the big fat lesbians that are beating us now," Waller wrote on Facebook, later adding, "I guess (we) should have gained 150# a piece and turned homo," with hashtags including "notacouple" "gobegaytoyourself" and "trump2020."

The comments were no longer visible on Waller's page by Tuesday morning, but a page calling for his resignation has posted screenshots of comments he reportedly made on Facebook and Twitter. Jacob Waller Must Resign this week said his "extremist views" don't belong on the county board.

"He views the LGBTQ community as subhuman, comparing them to rats, mosquitos and cockroaches that must be controlled," the group said. "He has called for the hanging and deaths of public officials while acting as a public official, himself."

TV station KWQC Channel 6 said the comments comparing gay people to cockroaches and rats came in a message from Waller to a viewer. The Jacob Waller Must Resign page posted an apparent screen shot of the message.

"KWQC reached out to Waller about the comments," the station said. "After he canceled his interview with us, he sent an email saying, 'I was angry, nobody was supposed to be hurt by the original post.'"

Other posts show him calling for "public hanging for treason" on a page called "Hillary For Prison - Angry American Patriots" and a response to a Fox News article on then-President Barack Obama reading, "Yayyyyyy now hang him."

Waller's Twitter page also appeared to have been scrubbed of many comments as of Tuesday morning, with the most recent tweet from July 2016.

Not everyone took issue with Waller's comments, and some voiced their support via social media in the wake of the firestorm.

Two days after Waller's Valentine's Day post, Henry County Board Chairman Roger Gradert said Waller's comments were free speech.

"He (Waller) is expressing his first amendment right and he is an elected official. There isn't much we as a board can do about it,” said Gradert, who told WQAD the board is getting backlash from the remarks.

The station said Waller declined to comment on after a Feb. 16 board meeting. Waller told Patch he had no comment on calls for his resignation.

Waller is not the only Illinois local official to draw fire for social media comments in recent weeks.

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Image via the Henry County Board