Glendale City Councilman Apologizes For Past Racist, Homophobic, Vulgar Comments

GLENDALE (CBSLA.com) — A Glendale city councilman apologized for a series of racist, homophobic and vulgar comments he posted on YouTube five years ago.

"I apologize to anyone who may have been offended by my past comments. I am truly sorry," said Zareh Sinanyan at Tuesday's council meeting. "It truly doesn't matter to me if you're Armenian, Latino, Anglo, or Korean. It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight."

Sinanyan's 2008 comments, which surfaced during the campaign for City Council a few months ago, were filled with racial and sexual vulgarities.

In one of his postings about unruly and disrespectful young people, he wrote, "They learn from Mexicans, and their parents give zero guidance to their kids, because a lot of them are lowlifes themselves."

Initially, Sinanyan hinted that a relative of Councilwoman Laura Friedman was setting him up.

"A certain blogger, who's related to you, very closely, keeps threatening that there are more posts," he said to Friedman during a meeting.

"Did you write any of those posts that had your name on them that were on your blog?" she asked.

"I told you that these are not my statements. They don't reflect me. They don't reflect my qualities," said Sinanyan.

"But did you write them?" asked Friedman.

Sinanyan said, "I'm telling you that I'm investigating this issue."

Last month, the councilman changed his tune, and this week, he made a formal apology.

In:
• YouTube