Investigate and report

Businesses hate it when their employees use company computers, telephones, fax machines, copiers and other valuable office equipment for personal use. Some companies have policies, and some of those policies are stricter than others.

But the bottom line is that companies want their office equipment used for its intended purpose.

That’s why U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode has to be frustrated that his Danville office’s fax number was listed in a brochure for the 2003 Toronto InsideOut gay and lesbian film festival. The fax number was a contact for the gay movie “Eden’s Curve,” that was filmed here in Danville.

“It wasn’t authorized by me and I think it’s wrong whoever did it,” Goode told The Daily Progress of Charlottesville. “It was absolutely improper.”

In response, Goode told The Daily Progress he will meet with members of his Danville congressional office to try to determine who might have been responsible for letting the gay and lesbian film festival have the office fax number, and to determine if taxpayer money was spent to promote “Eden’s Curve.”

Goode, this newspaper and other people and organizations in the Dan River Region were linked to “Eden’s Curve” when it was recently revealed that they had all been thanked in the gay movie’s closing credits.

That credit was most harmful to Goode, a social conservative who has voted against gay and lesbian issues in the past. Goode denied any involvement in the making of “Eden’s Curve.”

This latest revelation — coming just days before the election — certainly doesn’t link Goode to “Eden’s Curve.”

But it does mean that someone at that gay and lesbian film festival thought that faxes concerning “Eden’s Curve” should be sent to a number that turned out to be in Goode’s congressional office here in Danville.

The best thing Goode could do at this point is to follow through with what he’s already said he would do: Try to learn how his office fax number was used by the InsideOut gay and lesbian film festival, and determine if federal funds were used to promote the movie. That will likely lead to a review of computer files and access, plus fax line use.

To fully put this issue behind him, though, Goode should tell the public what he will tell his office and he needs to share with the public the results of his own internal review of the matter.

We call on Goode to put everything he finds out about “Eden’s Curve” and his office’s fax number before the public. That’s the best way to put the whole thing behind him.