Carl Austin-Behan, the gay mayor of Manchester, England, is probably the worst person to call a “dirty faggot” as two young women are finding out.
The former Mr. Gay UK, who was discharged from the Royal Air Force in 1997 because he’s gay, didn’t back down after encountering two teenaged girls arguing with a ticket booth attendant outside a Justin Bieber concert. One of the girls reportedly told the ticket taker “I’m not paying that to see a dirty gay.”
Austin-Behan told The Guardian that he wasn’t willing to walk away from language like that.
“As I walked past them I thought ‘I’m not happy with that’ so I turned round and said: ‘Do you think that’s appropriate, in this day and age?’ That’s when the barrage of comments came back [saying] ‘Am I gay? Am I gay? Am I a dirty faggot?’ and all that sort of stuff that started coming out,” he told the paper.
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“I was annoyed. I wasn’t shaken up, I was annoyed. Because it was a Justin Bieber concert there was a lot of young people there, and it was a mix of people. I was more annoyed that people could go to a gig like that and feel they could get away with saying things like that.”
The mayor, the youngest in the city’s history, took to Twitter to express his outrage – including photos of the young women.
“I’m in a privileged position at the moment as the lord mayor and one of the things I’ve stood my ground on is that we need to make sure we report hate crime and get that message across. The fact of highlighting that it’s still out there – however small it is, you still have to report it – because there are still people out there who feel it’s all right to be abusive,” he said.
“I’m quite a strong person, I can take that. But if people are still saying those things about someone’s sexuality, I find that really offensive and hurtful. It’s important that we stand our ground and that we demand the respect we should get. It may seem trivial to some people, a bit of name-calling, but it’s highly offensive.”
Check out the mayor’s tweet below.
Just met 2 ladies who think it's right to be homophobic at a Justin Bieber concert calling me a dirty fagot and a dirty gay @GMPCC @gmpolice pic.twitter.com/YuqrggjCnl
— Cllr June Hitchen (@LordMayorOfMcr) October 23, 2016