The Newest Attack on Hillary Clinton

[Content Note: Homophobia; misogynist and homophobic slurs.]

Which is really an old attack, being drudged up from the depths of the fetid cesspool that is the history of gross attacks on Hillary Clinton: Hillary is bisexual!

Earlier this week, the garbage rag that is the Daily Mail ran a totally trenchant piece (to which I refuse to link, but I'm sure Google will help you locate it if you're so inclined) about how former and possibly future Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is totes bisexual for sure, using as its reliable source former President Bill Clinton's ex-lover Gennifer Flowers, who says: "Bill told me and that was that he was aware that Hillary was bisexual and he didn't care. He should know. He said Hillary had eaten more p***y than he had." Charming.

Meanwhile, a week or so ago, the Globe, another fine publication featuring rock-solid journalism, featured on its cover in giant block letters: "HILLARY'S STEAMY ROMPS—WITH ANOTHER WOMAN! WILL SECRET PAST WRECK WHITE HOUSE DREAM?"


(I took this picture while standing in the check-out line at the grocery store, because Aphra_Behn and I have a fun habit of texting each other the most egregious tabloid covers across which we stumble.)

So, in case Republican Congressman Darrell Issa and his merry band of integrity-challenged miscreants don't succeed in derailing any potential presidential ambitions of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by screaming BENGHAZI! on an infinite loop for the next six months, the tabloids are getting their backs with reprehensible appeals to the dinosaurs of social justice with the journalistic equivalent of a mean rumor scribbled on a page of notebook paper and passed around during study hall.

Hillary Clinton has never disclosed that she is bisexual. Whether she is bisexual has nothing to do with her skills, or her flaws, as a politician and a leader.

And I suspect Hillary Clinton would not consider being called bisexual an insult. Factually inaccurate, maybe.

But of course it's not for her, or even really about her. It's for the people who will never vote for her in a million years, anyway. It's for the people who think it's the height of clever discourse to call any woman who is a feminist a "dyke!" (or some variation thereof); to call any straight person who supports LGB equality a "homo!" (or some variation thereof). It's for people who don't know shit about shit, who don't even know enough to compose a legitimate critique of Hillary Clinton's policies, and thus have to settle for what they perceive to be name-calling, imagining Hillary fucking Clinton will crumble at ALLEGED EVIDENCE SHE MAY HAVE SWUM IN THE OCEAN WITH ANOTHER WOMAN ONCE UPON A TIME POSSIBLY!

Hillary Clinton, I imagine, couldn't give less of a shit. And I'm not writing this post for her. I'm writing it for all the girls and young women who watch her, and other women like her, and see what is done to them, and have to weigh their desire to change the world against their desires to be safe, respected, treated with kindness.