Lou Nakapalau was a city council member in Echo City, Oregon. In 2017, he commented on the fan page for the film Kumu Hina. Now, he had to take the trouble of going to that page and then complained about the LGBTIQA “agenda” being forced on him. The filmmaker and he engaged an a back and forth that revealed despicable homophobic and transphobic bigotry.
This led to consternation on the city council and passage of a social media policy for city council members. Local businesses spoke up in favor of inclusion and were, in turn, attacked for being pro-inclusion.
The incident got national attention and regional media did some basic research on Nakapalau and discovered he had been convicted of nine counts of possession child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in 2000. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail though he spent 52 on work release. He had a further five years probation.
Nakapalau refused to answer any questions about his past, walking out of a city council meeting. He then resigned. Nakapalau died in January 2023.
While this was an ugly incident with Nakapalau’s supporters attacking businesses and business owners who spoke up for the LGBTIQA community, it did lead to the creation of a new local human dignity organization called the Economic Community for Healthy Opportunities. See this story from Rural Organizing Project for more.
- YakTriNews: Town rallies support for LGBTQ community following councilman’s anti-gay comments (Content Note: vicious anti-gay slurs)
- East Oregonian: ECHO Nakapalau leaves meeting after being asked about criminal record
- YakTriNews: Echo councilman leaves meeting when asked about child porn conviction
- YakTriNews: Echo councilman criticized for gay slur, child porn resigns
Bellingham, Washington · Sunday, October 22, 2017