ALBANY COUNTY — William Tryon was in his bare feet on Tuesday morning when the FBI and State Police came to his South Bethlehem home.
 He was arrested “for his role in the riot and assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6,” according to a tweet from the FBI field office in Albany.

On Tuesday, the FBI agents and police “looked all through the house” for papers and computers, Tryon said. “They put everything back. Everything was neat.”

Tryon said he has a court date in April.

Tryon’s group, the Liberty Bell Alliance 76, has been holding rallies every Saturday at the state capitol in Albany, which he says routinely draw 20 to 40 people, even during the cold winter months.

Tryon, who is 71 and had worked as a farmer and excavator, is also writing a series of books with stories that focus on the mid-20th-Century, in his youth, when things to him seemed right with the country. “It was such a different world,” he said. “Kids respected their parents.”

This past weekend, Tryon hosted a conference at Camp Pinnacle called the “Return to Liberty under the Constitution Seminar,” which he said about 180 people attended. The local Bible camp is in the town of New Scotland, right on the border with Berne, just south of Thacher Park.

An Albany County legislator, Republican George Langdon IV of Coeymans, a friend of Tryon, has come under fire for anti-gay remarks he made at Camp Pinnacle, leading to calls on Wednesday for his resignation. 

On Thursday, Langdon issued an apology “to the LGBTQ community and all others for the hurtful remarks recently made at a conference.”

His statement went on, “I have never been homophobic nor do I think any individuals should be placed on an island. I deeply regret my foolish off-the-cuff comment that has caused so much pain. I commit to doing a better job of respecting diversity.

“I hope my years of past public service demonstrate genuine concern for all individuals. I will be taking time to reflect on how to best serve moving forward.”

Tryon had kicked off the seminar by introducing Camp Pinnacle’s executive director, Stephen Flach, who, referring to coronavirus mask-mandates, said to laughter, “I understand that most of you have a medical exemption. Thank you for exercising your rights.”

Langdon began his March 27 speech with a lesson he learned a decade earlier, as a Tea Party activist: Hijack the party apparatus at the lowest levels and change will soon follow. 

“But you know, on a lot of these small local elections, town boards, school boards, you can actually get elected by going door-to-door to your constituents, that’s what I do,” he said. 

Talking about the need for more conservatives to get involved in local politics, Langdon turned toward the church and the influence it has over its congregants at the ballot box, and about the need to support candidates that “support our lifestyle, our way of thinking.”

As his speech was winding down, Langdon spoke about “where this country’s going,” and about the “gender issue.”

He then said, “Everything God does is sustainable; it’s sustainable. It goes on and on and on; it’s perpetual. Sorry, when you have homosexual relationships it’s not perpetual. Give them an island, they’ll be gone in 40 years. OK, because ... God created us to be this way there’s so much common sense that needs to be applied to our policies, our procedures, the things that we do in our government.”

Langdon did not return a Wednesday call from The Enterprise, seeking comment.

A statement from County Executive Daniel McCoy, a Democrat, said in part, “The views expressed by Albany County Legislator George Langdon circulating in a video on social media are wildly homophobic and hurtful, and represent outdated and backward thinking … If this is a true reflection of his beliefs, he has no place as a policymaker in county government. Legislator Langdon needs to immediately apologize to the LGBTQ community as well as to all county residents.”

“Listening to someone laughingly share an ugly, nightmarish scenario of our loved ones being ‘gone after 40 years’ shakes us all to our core, not only as public servants, but as human beings,” said Albany County Legislature Chairman Andrew Joyce, also a Democrat, as he called on Langdon to apologize and resign. 

Republican Minority Leader Frank Mauriello also issued a statement: “Whatever your sexual orientation, we are all equal in God’s eyes and equal under the law. Any statements that contradict that belief are unacceptable. Our community is strengthened by mutual respect and understanding and a shared belief that divisive comments will never move us forward.

“On the subject of resignation, each elected official is responsible for their words and actions and is accountable to the constituents in his/her district.”

“He’s my good friend,” Tryon said of Langdon.

Asked about Langdon’s “gone in 40 years” comment, Tryon said, “The comment was off-the-cuff and flippant. He didn’t mean to hurt them. Who doesn’t love them as human beings?”

He said that his friend “is not homophobic or racist.”

Tryon also said of Langdon, “He’s a loving man. He’s a Christian. He didn’t mean to hurt people …. The problem is we are being so sensitized in this country …. We have to love people.”