Councilwoman Apologizes For Shouting Homophobic Slurs, Won’t Resign

Robin Vaughn, a city council member in Trenton, New Jersey, has issued an apology for her vicious, homophobic screed unleashed against the city’s first openly gay mayor during a conference call among city officials. News outlets reported the lengthy expletive-laced rant last week which included Vaughn calling Mayor Reed Gusciora a “bitchass” and “motherf***king drug addict pedophile.” And that was just the beginning. Additionally, she turned her fire on another official, Joe Harrison, accusing him of performing oral and anal sex for the mayor. According to The Trentonian, Vaughn 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.” Here’s an excerpt from the conference call. The full meeting can be heard here.

Having listened to the recorded conference call, it seems to me as though the words came out of her mouth way too easily, as if she uses them on a regular basis. After the rant was reported in the media, Gov. Phil Murphy and both U.S. senators – Sen. Bob Menendez and Sen. Cory Booker – have called for her resignation. But neither local nor state officials have the authority to remove her from office. Christian Fuscarino, executive director of Garden State Equality, told The Trentonian in a statement Sunday:

“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.”

Vaughn has reportedly announced she will not resign from her position. Her apology, issued on her Facebook page, begins, “I apologize. That must be the first thing you hear from me.” “I am deeply and specifically sorry for the language that has offended so many,” she continued. “It was also not my intent to attack anyone on the basis of any classification or personal preferences, but I should have been more sensitive to the potential implication of my words and how they might be perceived.” You can see the full statement below. During a subsequent teleconference meeting on Tuesday, the city council voted against a call to censure Vaughn.