Washington, PA councilman reprimanded for using ‘gay’ as slur in EMS test

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A city councilman in Washington, Pennsylvania was reprimanded on Monday for jokingly referring to a friend as “gay” in a test of the city’s emergency email system. According to Pittsburgh’s KDKA CBS Channel 2, Councilman Matt Staniszewski, when tasked with sending an email to test the system, wrote, “Alert: This is an [sic] test. Brian is gay.”

During a city council meeting on Monday, Washington Mayor Brenda Davis admonished Staniszewski for behaving in an unprofessional manner, “This is inappropriate for the city of Washington. Coming from the city of Washington, it does not look good for us.”

Staniszewski did not apologize, but said, “we all know that the word means happy” and that he was referring to a college friend.

The councilman’s campaign website says that Staniszewski “comes from three generations of local steel and mine workers” and that he ran on a platform of reducing government spending. His campaign slogan was, “It’s not about me, it’s about you.”

[image via MattStaniszewski.com]