Robin Vaughn, a councilwoman in Trenton, New Jersey, is being called on to resign after having an epic homophobic meltdown in a coronavirus-related conference call with city officials.
NJ.com reports: “The 10-minute expletive-laced rant by Councilwoman Robin Vaughn included calling Mayor Reed Gusciora a ‘pedophile.’ She also accused another city official of performing a sexual act on the city’s first openly gay mayor and called the mayor a ‘woman’ and a ‘bitch a**.’ The audio of the call was obtained by NJ Advance Media through the city and its authenticity was confirmed by two city officials who were on the call.”
Vaughn also shouted at fellow council member Joe Harrison on the 53-minute call, which was published in full by The Trentonian. Said Vaughn: “Continue to suck Reed Gusciora’s d**k all you want to, motherf**ker.”
The Trentonian adds: “She launched into a stream of curse words and personal insults after Gusciora challenged her to name one of the capital city’s ‘do-nothing’ organizations she has criticized on Facebook. At one point, Vaughn, who previously caught heat for defending a colleague’s use of an anti-Semitic slur, called Gusciora a ‘pedophile,’ said the mayor and Harrison weren’t ‘real men,’ and suggested ‘the only thing [Gusciora] brought into City Hall is a bunch of young boys, and they’re sitting up there in the mayor’s suite.'”
At one point, after a shouting match erupted between the mayor and the councilwoman amid much gasping, Vaughn went after Gusciora’s family: “We don’t have b**ch-ass men in my family. We don’t have b**ch-ass men like you and Reed Gusciora in my family. We got real men in my family. B**ch-a**es. Nothing but a bunch of women. That’s all you are. B**ches. That’s right. Running around here with young men. Reed ain’t nothing but an old pedophile. B**ch-ass motherf**kin’ mayor.”
Vaughn released a statement on Twitter, but didn’t deny the remarks.
The LGBTQ rights group Garden State Equality has called on Vaughn to resign: “Councilwoman Vaughn is unfit to serve the people of Trenton. There’s no need to parse words here: for her hateful anti-LGBTQ language and defending the anti-Semitic slurs of others, she must resign. Her words are an attack on the diversity of Trenton’s community, the city’s elected leadership, and our state as a whole. Any decent-minded New Jerseyan who believes in the success and future of our state’s capital should denounce this hateful rhetoric and call for her to step down immediately.”
Regarding Vaughn’s anti-Semitism, NJ.com adds: “In September, after Council President Kathy McBride used the phrase ‘Jew her down‘ when referencing a city attorney, Vaughn swiftly defended McBride’s use of the anti-Semitic slur. Vaughn then issued an apology, calling her defense of the comments “an error of my judgment.”
