Anthony Weiner’s campaign for the New York City mayor’s office got off to a rough start after a recording caught a voter using a gay slur to reference to his main rival, openly gay candidate Christine Quinn. Weiner’s response to the woman raised eyebrows and he quickly apologized for the woman’s remarks.
In a Washington Post story on the race published on Thursday, the paper describes an encounter Weiner had with a woman voter while trying to get signatures to get his name on the ballot.
“You a registered Democrat?” the former Congressman asks the elderly woman. “I am...And I’m not voting for uh, what’s her name? The dyke,” she replies.
At first, Wiener only says, “Okay. I just need you to sign the petition to get me on the ballot,” but then he sees a shocked reporter. “And you really shouldn’t talk that way about people,” he added at the last minute.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said.
“It’s okay...It’s not your fault,” Weiner replied.
The Post published a recording of the incident and Weiner’s spokeswoman took to Twitter to explain what happened.
In the statement, Weiner says that “homophobia is vile and destructive,” notes NBC New York. “I admonished the woman amid a large crowd on a street corner and by no means believe that anything about her comment was appropriate.” He added, “If the impression is that I did, I apologize because behavior like this will absolutely not be tolerated in my administration.”
“I think it is incredibly important for all New Yorkers, but particularly those in public life, to make very clear that in this city -- the most diverse city in the world, the city where the LGBT civil rights movement was born -- that that type of language cannot be tolerated,” Quinn told reporters. She said that Weiner called her and “clarified the interaction.”
Weiner, who resigned from Congress after a Twitter scandal, announced his run for Mayor last month.