Trenton Lawmaker’s Anti-Gay Tirade Against Mayor
Garden State Equality demands that Councilmember Robin Vaughn resign her offi ce
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
During a May 2 conference
call about federal
funding for fi ghting the
coronavirus, a Trenton
city councilmember laced into out
gay Mayor Reed Gusciora in a homophobic
rant that included calling
him a “pedophile,” a “woman,”
and a “bitch ass.”
Councilmember Robin Vaughn,
who represents Trenton’s West
Ward, went on for 10 minutes in
her curse-fi lled attack on Gusciora,
according to NJ Advance Media,
which obtained the audio of
the conference call and reported it
on nj.com.
During discussion of $3 million
in funding the city is getting from
the federal government, Gusciora
made mention of criticism Vaughn
had made on social media that he
characterized as accusing the city
of “funding a bunch of do-nothing
organizations.”
The mayor told NJ Advance
Media that prompted Vaughn to
launch into her attack.
“She just spews out her hatred
when she disagrees with what you
have to say,” the news site quoted
Gusciora saying.
➤ BISEXUAL PRIDE FLAG, from p.18
Trans Flag, is casting doubt on the
very possibility that a fl ag could
even be trademarked. She told Gay
City News in a phone interview
April 30 that she looked into the
possibility of obtaining the rights
to her own fl ag but was told that
it is not possible to copyright or
trademark a fl ag.
“This thing that BiNet is saying
is BS,” Helms said. “They don’t
have any kind of copyright on it. If
they tried to go to court, they would
lose. They don’t have any proof.”
An image of the Bisexual Pride
Flag on Wikimedia Commons lists
Page as the author and the licensing
section of that page states,
“This image of simple geometry is
ineligible for copyright and therefore
in the public domain, because
Trenton City Councilmember Robin Vaughn.
The mayor also said, “This is
pretty much par for the course, unfortunately,
for the councilwoman.
She went on a complete meltdown,
a tirade.
The efforts by another councilmember,
Joe Harrison, to calm
the waters instead led to a shouting
match between him and Vaughn,
according to nj.com. Harrison referred
to Vaughn as “Radioactive
Robin.”
According to the LGBTQ Victory
it consists entirely of information
that is common property and contains
no original authorship.”
Helms has a unique connection
to both BiNet USA and Page. She
met Page in 1999 when she was
serving as a co-chair of BiNet, and
it was around that time, she said,
that Page encouraged her to create
a fl ag for the transgender community.
Helms has since lost touch
with Page, but she stood up for his
original vision of the Bisexual Pride
Flag and pushed back against Bi-
Net’s claims.
“When Michael made the Bisexual
Pride Flag, he said it was for
the bisexual community,” Helms
said. “It had no copyright, no trademark,
no nothing. The Bi Flag has
been public domain for more than
20 years now.”
Contact information for Page
TRENTONNJ.ORG
Fund, which works to elect out offi -
cials nationwide, Vaughn charged
that Harrison “sucks the mayor’s
dick” and that Gusciora brings “a
bunch of young boys” to City Hall
where they are “sitting up there in
the mayor’s suite.”
The Trenton City Council has
recently gained a reputation for
its members resorting to bigoted
and derogatory terms in its offi cial
business.
In September, Council President
was not immediately available.
Helms, who eventually left Bi-
Net after she came to terms with
her sexuality and realized she was
only attracted to women, described
the organization as one that has
shrunk over the years and is primarily
driven only by its president,
Cheltenham.
Charley Beal, who is the president
of the Gilbert Baker Foundation
and helped manage Baker’s
estate up until this past December,
echoed Helms’ sentiments in
an email to Gay City News.
“Like Gilbert Baker’s creation,
the Rainbow Flag, it is something
that is owned by the people,” wrote
Beal, a close friend of Baker’s. “You
cannot copyright a fl ag anymore
than you or I could if we tried to
claim ownership of the American
fl ag.”
POLITICS
Kathy McBride, during an executive
session, said, that in negotiating
a settlement on behalf of the
city, a Jewish member of the city’s
legal department was able to “Jew
her down.” At that time, Vaughn
and another councilmember came
to McBride’s defense. All three eventually
apologized over the incident,
but the entire 12-member New Jersey
congressional delegation called
on McBride and her supporters to
resign from the Council. All three
chose to hold onto their posts.
In the wake of Vaughn’s latest
outrage, Garden State Equality,
New Jersey’s LGBTQ rights organization,
is calling for her resignation.
“Councilwoman Vaughn is unfi t
to serve the people of Trenton,” the
group’s executive director, Christian
Fuscarino, said in a statement.
“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.”
Vaughn’s voicemail box was
full and she did not respond to an
email requesting comment.
He added, “As the creator of the
fl ag, Michael Page could have fi led
a copyright for the design of the
fl ag as a ‘work of art’ but not as a
fl ag.”
Beal also tore into BiNet USA directly,
saying he suspects that “this
is some sort of foolish money grab
by BiNet USA and I would be very
interested to see how this plays out
in court, if it gets that far.”
He added, “Frankly I fi nd it
deeply upsetting that anybody
would try to make a profi t off of an
icon that an oppressed minority
looks up to as a symbol of liberation.
Liberation should never have
a price tag.”
Baker was tireless over four decades
in volunteer efforts to promote
the Rainbow Flag and adapt
its use for a wide variety of community
occasions and endeavors.
GayCityNews.com | May 7 - May 20, 2020 19
/TRENTONNJ.ORG
/nj.com
/nj.com
/GayCityNews.com
