It was the Epstein comment that did it.
When Susan Lancaster heard Stafford Supervisor Tinesha Allen suggest that people are more outraged about Pride Month than about the government’s trove of documents on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Lancaster stormed out of a county board of supervisors meeting Tuesday evening.
“I can’t believe what she just said,” Lancaster said later outside the Stafford Government Center.
Lancaster was one of four speakers on Tuesday who opposed the supervisors officially proclaiming June as Pride Month in honor of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual communities.
But despite the quartet’s pleas, the supervisors did just that, voting in favor of the proclamation, 5-1.
A few minutes after the vote, Allen, who represents the Griffis-Widewater District, said she didn’t want to be confrontational or cause “consternation.”
But, she said, “It’s crazy to me that we’re not concerned with people in the Epstein file [sic] and pedophilia with the same energy as we do for recognizing a month.”
Because of the way the agenda was structured, the supervisors actually voted before the Pride Month opponents spoke. This was the second year in a row that the board has approved such a proclamation.
Like last year, Hartwood District Supervisor Darrell English cast the sole dissenting vote. Rock Hill District Supervisor Crystal Vanuch was absent from the meeting because she was ill, board Chairman Deuntay Diggs said.
English initially forgot that the supervisors approved a Pride proclamation last year, and he said he was concerned about officially recognizing special-interest groups.
“I think we’re going down a slippery slope,” he said, “so I recommend that we deny this request as far as a proclamation for June Pride Month. So that’s where I stand.”
Lancaster, who lives in Stafford’s George Washington District, told the supervisors that they should be focused on the “practical governance that affects all of us equally” rather than on recognizing specific groups of people.
“When local government bodies choose to officially endorse specific cultural or social movements, it often creates unnecessary divisions among the residents rather than fostering unity,” she said.
Diggs, however, countered that notion later in the meeting. He is the first openly gay supervisor to serve as chairman, and his comments were personal, like they were in 2025.
“Last year was the first year that we did this, and shocker to all of those out there, the sky did not fall, the government didn’t explode and we didn’t turn any cars in Stafford into glittering Pride bombs, OK?” he said.
Part of proclaiming months in this way is recognizing the pain that has gone on in America’s history, Diggs said.
“And so, with that, I will say I’m excited that, for the second year in a row, we’re recognizing Pride because if you are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, you, too, can be successful,” he said. “You, too, can add to this beautiful community, in this country, and you are loved.”
