A Long Island mayor has refused to resign over an alleged homophobic comment he made on social media towards an animal rights activist and her dancing wife \u2014 despite pushback from his fellow board members. <\/p>\n
Tom Gardella, the mayor of Sag Harbor Village, sparked fury last month when he responded to Texas resident Rebecca Chavez\u2019s clip where she, her wife Deanah and their dog boogied to Jon Secada\u2019s 1992 track \u201cJust Another Day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s that thing in the background? A guy. A girl? Some creature?\u201d Gardella commented.<\/p>\n
Gardella, who was sworn in as mayor in July 2023, has been bombarded with criticism since and a probe into the remark is underway \u2014 but he remains defiant, insisting he\u2019s not going to resign, the Sag Harbor Express reported.<\/a><\/p>\n A Long Island mayor was outed over an alleged homophobic comment he made on social media. Becca Isabel \/ Instagram<\/p>\n Rebecca Chavez outed Sag Harbor Village mayor Tom Gardella. Becca Isabel \/ Instagram<\/p>\n On Tuesday, Sag Harbor Village board members called on Gardella to step down.<\/p>\n \u201cI will not resign from the office of mayor,\u201d he said in Tuesday\u2019s board meeting. \u201cThat is not going to happen. You have me confused with somebody else. I\u2019m not the guy that runs from a crisis. I\u2019m the guy who runs into it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe residents of this village came to me and asked me to lead them. And I hope I can lead us out of this mess and at some point be able to work together with the board.\u201d<\/p>\n After sharing the video, Chavez, the CEO of the Yacqui Animal Rescue center, then spotted the alarming comment, telling News12<\/a>, \u201cComparing someone to a creature or a thing kind of took me back a little bit, and that\u2019s what made me dive a little bit deeper. It\u2019s a little surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n Chavez said the comment made her wife feel \u201clesser than a human being,\u201d Newsday reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n She then took a deeper dive, where she learned Gardella, who served in the US military as an imagery analyst during the Cold War, is the mayor of Sag Harbor.<\/p>\n She found the mayor\u2019s Facebook page and the profile picture matched his private Instagram account. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a Master Class in pettiness and accountability. If you\u2019re going to comment mean things, please be prepared for the consequences,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are a Mayor for the city of Sag Harbor, New York. I would expect an elected official and Christian man like yourself to behave better. Maybe we need to send him a few emails to remind him that his behavior is unbecoming of a public servant.\u201d<\/p>\n