NYC mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner came under fire this week for his response to an audience member who referred to Christine Quinn as “that dyke” in an exchange reported by the Washington Post. Quinn, NYC’s Council Speaker and another contender for mayor, is an openly gay woman.
Weiner gently admonished the audience member for her comment after he noticed the “incredulous reaction” of a reporter. The woman apologized, to which Weiner responded, “it’s not your fault.”
“You a registered Democrat?” [Weiner] asked an elderly woman wheeling a shopping cart by him.
“I am,” she said. “And I’m not voting for uh, what’s her name? The dyke.”
“Okay. I just need you to sign the petition to get me on the ballot,” said Weiner, who then noticed the incredulous reaction of a reporter and added, “and you really shouldn’t talk that way about people.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” the woman said.
“It’s okay,” Weiner responded. “It’s not your fault.”
Weiner defended his reaction and his LGBT record in a statement Thursday, calling homophobia “vile and destructive” and noting that he has supported gay marriage since 1998 despite being in a district with a “heavy Orthodox Jewish and religious Catholic constituency.”
“Well let me make it clear that when I heard the person make that remark—by the way it was in a scrum of literally dozens of people around me on a street corner—when I heard the woman make that remark, I immediately admonished her not to say anything further,” Weiner told reporters after a speech on health policy. “I have no memory of saying anything beyond that to the woman.”
