Mayor Offers to Let Man Sleep “Butt Naked” in His Bed
Mayor Curtis Boyd of Darlington, S.C., used an anti-gay slur as part of an exchange with the critic, then later denied it was a slur.
Curtis Boyd, the mayor of Darlington, South Carolina, gave a truly bizarre response to a man who accused him of not being a resident of the city he governs.
At a recent city council meeting, a man confronted Boyd during the public comments and alleged he shouldn’t be mayor of the small town of 6,000 residents because he didn’t live within city limits.
“You’re welcome to leave with me tonight,” Boyd responded to his critic, according to WBTW. “And if you want, you can sleep in my bed butt naked with me. You’re welcome to sleep in the bed with me.”
“I’m not gay. I’m not a faggot. I’m not a homosexual,” responded the man.
“I’m not a faggot either, but you’re more than welcome to come live and see where I stay,” Boyd replied, adding that both his residence and the address on his driver’s license are located within the city limits.
Boyd, when asked about using the anti-gay slur following the meeting, defended the term.
“The F-word…that you are referring to means a bundle of sticks,” Boyd told WBTW reporters over the phone. “And he said he was not that. I said I’m not that either. Whatever it is, I looked it up, and it means a bundle of sticks. If you look at the dictionary.”
Most dictionaries note that the word is a derogatory slur for a gay man, in addition to the definition cited by Boyd.
Darlington city council members have largely shied away from the incident, declining to comment. Councilwoman Elaine Reed, however, chastised Boyd for using the slur.
“He just should have simply given the facts that there is, that he is in compliance with all of the residency situation,” Reed said. “There shouldn’t have been any other comment.”
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