Weiner Responds To "Dyke" Incident

"Let me make it clear that when I heard the person make a remark, it was in a scrum of literally dozens of people around me on a street corner. When I heard that woman make that remark, I immediately admonished her not to say anything further I have no memory of saying anything beyond that to the woman."

"Let me make it very clear that any other incidence of any type of slur against any community, I won’t tolerate. I think I’ve got a very long record going back to my first days running for Congress in a conservative district, endorsing gay marriage in 1998. I feel very strongly about these issues and I did admonish the woman and if there was something else that was said that was anyway interpreted as anything else, that was wrong. I admonished the woman and I don’t believe she should have said what she said.

"I worked my entire career to–in an often very conservative environment, in a district that had a heavy Orthodox Jewish and religious Catholic constituency–to embrace the ideas of civil liberties for all people. I was one of the earliest endorsers of gay marriage in the New York congressional delegation. And I think that what was said was wrong and I said it at the time. Any other impression that might have been left was wrong. I admonish it." - NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, speaking today to reporters.

BACKSTORY: Weiner was responding to criticism for telling a woman, "It's OK. It's not your fault," after she referred to Christine Quinn as a "dyke."  The Victory Fund, the Empire State Pride Agenda, and openly gay New York legislators Brad Hoylman and Deborah Glick have all denounced Weiner's handling of the incident. All have endorsed Christine Quinn.