‘Hateful’ councillor erupts into NSFW homophobic tirade and calls New Jersey’s first openly gay mayor a ‘paedophile’
Trenton, New Jersey, councillor Robin Vaughn (L) and Trenton mayor Reed Gusciora – the city’s first openly gay mayor. (Trenton New Jersey City Council file photographs)
New Jersey councillor Robin Vaughn erupted into a horrific homophobic tirade against the city’s mayor, calling him a “paedophile”, a “woman” and a “b***h a**” during a daily conference call about the coronavirus crisis.
In the expletive-laced, 10-minute-long attack against Trenton mayor Reed Gusciora – the city’s first openly gay mayor – Vaughn also accused a city legislator of performing a sexual act on the mayor.
Vaughn launched her attack against Gusciora following a dispute over funding for non-profit organisations, according to audio files obtained by The Trentonian.
Following the inflammatory rant, LGBT+ organisations have rallied for the lawmaker to resign.
What happened?
Vaughn, other members of the Trenton City Council and Gusciora were on a conference call to draw the blueprints needed for how to manage a city paralysed by the pandemic.
A point of contention emerged as officials debated a $3million federal grant from the Community Development Program.
During the call, Gusciora, audio showed, brought up allegations that the councillor described non-profits as “do nothing” organisations.
Provoking Vaughn, the two began to spar in the midst of the call, raising their voice as the call collapsed into a shouting match between officials.
Gusciora described how the councillor went on a “complete meltdown, a tirade”, he told NJ Advance Media.
“She just spews out her hatred when she disagrees with what you have to say,” Gusciora said.
New Jersey councillor Robin Vaughn calls for officials to ‘suck [mayor Reed Gusciora’s] d**k’.
Indeed, Vaughn called Gusciora a: “Motherf***ing drug-addict paedophile, that’s what you are.”
“You need to get the f**k out of the office and get the f**k out of Trenton,” she continued, according to the audio recording.
“I’ve seen young boys coming out of your house.”
Vaughn signed-off the call by telling one council staffer to: “Help pack [Gusciora’s] bags and suck his d**k while you’re at it.”
On Sunday, Vaughn issued a statement on social media demanding that both the audio and the full transcript of the call be released to the public.
https://twitter.com/trentonwestward/status/1256760892810821634
“Trentonians, since I don’t have the privilege of having friends who are owners and/or editors of newspapers who will only write good things about me or my side of the story, then I will request the full audio or transcript be released so you, the residents and taxpayers of Trenton, will have the full context of that conference call,” she said.
“Councilwoman Vaughn has a history of causing disruptions at council meetings and attacking other decent people, based on their religion or ethnicity, who want to move our city forward,” Gusciora said in a statement to Fox News Monday afternoon.
“She has also remained steadfast in her opposition to economic development or any other sign of progress for our city.”
LGBT+ rights groups call for Robin Vaughn to resign.
The state’s largest LGBT+ advocacy group Garden State Equality called for the lawmaker to resign.
Executive director Christian Fuscarino said that “councilwoman Vaughn is unfit to serve the people of Trenton” in an online statement issued Sunday.
Statement from our Executive Director @Fuscarino on anti-LGBTQ attacks from Trenton Councilwoman Robin Vaughn: pic.twitter.com/17WmzJjUPM— Garden State Equality (@GSEquality) May 3, 2020
“There’s no need to parse words here: for her hateful anti-LGBT+ language and defending the antisemitic slurs of others, she must resign,'” Fuscarino said.
“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.”
