Pregame Facebook Post Brings Postgame Heat For N.J. Assemblyman

The Jersey Journal reported that Charles Mainor fired himself up for last Sunday’s National Football League Divisional Playoff game between “Big Blue” and the Green Bay Packers, by posting the following status update from a party in Jersey City:

We are not going to just lay down, we come to play. Who the hell do you think we are the DALLAS COWGIRLS OR THOSE GAYBIRDS FROM PHILLY…NO WE ARE THE NEW YORK GIANTS

Steven Goldstein, chairman and chief executive officer of gay-rights group Garden State Equality, told the Journal the post by Mainor was “inadvisable,” and “hurt a lot of people,” adding:

I don’t believe, from what I know of Assemblyman Mainor, that they reflect any deep prejudice on his part. He is a good and decent man who made an unfortunate misstep here. Facebook is public. It’s a public expression of who you are, and people really need to be careful. It’s not your own personal stream of consciousness.

Mainor apologized, telling the newspaper that he only wrote one-half of the post, and a friend added the “gaybirds,” part. The assemblyman also said:

I have to take full responsibility because it was under my name. I have no excuse, other than me not looking before he did send the post. I have very, very close relatives who are gay. I have nothing against them. I’m far from that.

In Mainor’s defense, off-color humor of this sort is often resorted to by sports fans, and not meant to be taken literally.

As a Dallas Cowboys fan who lives in New Jersey, this writer has heard his fill of “Cowgirls,” “Cowfags,” and “Tony Homo,” referring to current Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo, from people who are not homophobic.

But a member of the police force and an elected official should realize that the standards he will be judged by are higher, and deservedly so.

Screen shot courtesy of The Jersey Journal.