Chelsea Handler is under fire over a homophobic tweet she wrote… again.
Yesterday, on National Coming Out Day, Handler made a dig at Republicans by cracking a joke about Sen. Lindsey Graham‘s sexuality.
“If you’re wondering why Republicans took a sick day today, it’s probably because it’s #NationalComingOutDay,” she wrote. “Looking at you @LindseyGrahamSC.”
If you’re wondering why Republicans took a sick day today, it’s probably because it’s #NationalComingOutDay. Looking at you @LindseyGrahamSC
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) October 11, 2018
Unfortunately for her, the joke bombed. Turns out people don’t find gay jokes as funny as they did back in 2007 when Handler was, ya know, relevant.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
https://twitter.com/jpbevi/status/1050473778344538112
https://twitter.com/inane_kev/status/1050501103832293376
https://twitter.com/danirat/status/1050485851698778112
Aahh, nothing says high quality comedy than shaming someone for their alleged sexuality. Congrats on being so obnoxious that you managed to get bipartisan disgust in a world where bipartisan no longer exists. #deleteyouraccount
— Michael Lewis (@MichaelLewis73) October 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/Skippy_LaRue/status/1050519917131456514
https://twitter.com/ohhimariss/status/1050510256986513408
https://twitter.com/leastarice66/status/1050571803117010944
I agree with a lot of what you say Chelsea but I think you need to stop this. It’s like you are saying being gay is an embarassment. I know that’s not your intent, but it is playing that way.
— Karen Miller (@KarenMBMiller) October 11, 2018
https://twitter.com/TrashByMichael/status/1050503831946055681
But this isn’t the first time the 43-year-old comedian has come until fire for attacking Graham’s sexuality.
In January, she tweeted that the 63-year-old is being blackmailed with a “dick sucking” video.
Holy, fuck fuck. I just the video of trumps bipartisan “meeting” yesterday. Hey, @LindseyGrahamSC what kind of dick sucking video do they have on you for you 2 be acting like this? Wouldn’t coming out be more honorable?
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) January 11, 2018
She really seems to have some sort of grudge against him.
Now, we totally get it. Lindsey Graham is not a good guy and certainly no ally to the LGBTQ community.
Not only did he oppose the repeal of DADT and gay-inclusive immigration reform, but he was also staunchly against gay marriage, calling it a road to polygamy.
But surely there are ways to criticize him that don’t involve cracking lame gay jokes about him?
Related: Is it OK for liberals to crack misogynistic gay jokes at Lindsey Graham’s expense?
Mozo83
Oh please. Moral scolds of Twitter are mad about something that you agree with does not an article make.
Kieran
In Handler’s warped, hate-filled 43 year old brain, calling someone gay is like the ultimate insult. The old bag needs to join us in the Twenty-First century.
jjose712
Well, for him it’s the ultimate insult for sure.
He is not fooling anyone but his record on gay rights is harming.
sorry if i don’t mind him being mocked by his hypocrisy. In fact i wouldn’t mind all closeted polititians who vote against gay rights being outed. I wouldn’t mind it at all
Mozo83
Thank you, jjose712. Thank you jjose.
Better question: why is Graham attacking Handler using right-winger tweets?
Greg
I have no problem with her jokes. Being gay is a shame to the Republican’ts. That’s why she’s saying it. Then there’s somebody else saying “I thought the Dems were the party of tolerance?” Who told her that?
misterjack
Linseybelle (and all closet cases who hurt the GLBT community) DESERVE all the mockery heaped upon them.
Kieran
Either homophobia is wrong or it’s not. You don’t get a pass to be homophobic because you’re a registered left-wing loon.
Heywood Jablowme
@Kieran: She’s not homophobic, brainiac — she’s making fun of a homophobic guy by calling him gay (also there’s at least some evidence that he actually IS a closeted gay guy).
“Either homophobia is wrong or it’s not.” So why do you support homophobic politicians?
Juanjo
Graham is a closeted enemy of gay people in the USA. Calling him out on that is not homophobic.
drmiller
I also have zero problem with her jokes. Greg above said it best here: she says it because republicans view being gay as shameful, it’s a joke. She also literally targets everyone for everything. Let’s calm down SJWs. Chelsea is absolutely an ally, and literally quit her show go fight for LGBTQ rights (among others). She is absolutely not the problem here. Good lord. Let’s stay focused people.
Vince
It’s the…”they’re all the same” mentality that’s the problem here.
Vince
I’d say the real offense is promoting somebody that’s hell bent on taking away your civil rights.
A little bit of levity to my fellow Libs.
bodie425
She’s not shaming him for being gay, she’s shaming him for doing everything he can to harm people just like him–LGBTQ people! I’m very forgiving for Queerty when readers whine about “straight guys” headers and the usual click bate stuff but this header pisses me off! I’m not tired of CH’s gay “jokes” as you call them. I want more and more and more. BTW, the French publicly shamed, shorn, and even executed the women that helped the Germans during their occupation in WWII. A few jokes won’t hurt this traitor closet queen.
Heywood Jablowme
LOL. Queerty runs a “gay” photo of Kanye sexually fondling Trump, just two articles away from this one. Ha ha. No sense of irony, Queerty?
There’s nothing wrong with what Chelsea Handler is doing, and there’s nothing wrong with a “gay” photo of Kanye sexually fondling Trump.
The only way this is “lame” is in the way these self-appointed Arbiters of Outrage find it so easy to tweet their phony outrage. I wonder how many of them even bother to vote.
Vince
I noticed a couple of them were big trump supporters. Talk about fake outrage. The rest that are youngsters so your point is valid since such a depressing few will bother to vote.
Rock-N-RollHS
Good for her for ignoring the twitter “justice warriors”; I’m not offended that LG is gay, although I’m sure he is.
jcoberkrom
How many people are just over Chelsea Handler.
startenout
Not me! Love her attitude
tham
I don’t find outing people as a good thing, in fact, it’s evil in a lot of ways…
There is one exception…Politicians.
If you vote and help “decide” civil law policies…and you are a self loathing, in the closet gay man who attack the gay community to hide your true self…Then I say out that bonehead.
Lindsey Graham is a self loathing closet case who attacks the gay community over and over again.
Oh and Matt Drudge…another self loathing gay who attacks the gay community.
I say they both deserve to be out…let them live as a gay man in the world they helped to create.
Pistolo
But I feel like we don’t mention anywhere often enough the STRAIGHT people without self-loathing or fear as an excuse that support this rhetoric by their vote or complicity. It’s always the onus is entirely on closeted gay men when, in actuality, for every one of those men there are thousands of straight bigots who just attach themselves to the next public homophobe.
So for me it’s about accountability. Closet cases may screw things up for us but the right wing culture created the closet, created the aiding and abetting of homophobes we see today.
Kieran
Chelsea Handler is the product of a Jewish father and a German mother. Can you imagine the psychic conflict that must generate for her? When she looks at her face in the morning she probably can’t decide whether to loathe her Jewish side or her German side.
Heywood Jablowme
What a disgusting comment.
Vince
I’m pretty sure you’re the only one that cares.
Kangol
You’re spewing Nazi logic. Jewish people were and are German too, you know. You regularly show yourself to be an unrepentant, homophobe-defending racist. Please go away.
chip_in_ga
REALLY? Can you actually be that ignorant?
Prax07
Love Chelsea, she can say pretty much anything and I have no prob with any of it.
GetOffMyInternets
Don’t forget we can’t criticize the “writers” here!
drumstick
She’s not mocking @lindseygraham for being gay. She’s mocking him for being in the closet. And in a position of power. Big difference. Get it right Queerty.
podesta7
The joke doesn’t cheapen anyone’s struggle and was not a dig at gay people. Calm thyself, humourless snowflakes!
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Talk about Stockholm Syndrome!!!
How the fcuk can any Gay person defend Miss Lindsay Grahm and defame Chelsea for calling him out on his hypocritical actions FOR DECADES!!
JessPH
She’s not making fun of his homosexuality. She’s making fun of his closet.
Pistolo
Why is only the gay media and hideously right-wing media pointing this out?
First of all, if you’re in the right-wing and especially if you’re lurking here- get real, gays and nobody out of the heteronorm is joining your club. You’re the party of Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann, Mike Pence, etc, you love homophobes until they’re Islamic or Left-wing, then they help your bigoted arguments so kindly STFU and sit the hell down.
Secondly, people on the left-wing still have homophobic preconceptions, even people I love still say homophobic things and hold homophobic beliefs. I don’t love Chelsea Handler at all but she otherwise fits the bill for this, she thinks using same-sex relations to embarass or emasculate men is funny- so did the jerks I went to highschool with, Chelsea.
Finally, Chelsea Handler isn’t funny. This is her being funny. Like being obsessed with vodka was “funny”, like dating 50 Cent and cashing in on it was “funny”, like bashing Angelina Jolie was “funny”- her sense of humor is edgy if you haven’t lived and are bitter AF. Don’t give a damn if she’s on my side or not .
boymikefl
Being thought of as gay is the biggest fear of homophobic men. I say go for it. Or call him a bitch which these men use to degrade women. Being submissive to bullies does not work. Kicking them in the nuts is frowned upon and you’d probably get in trouble so, name calling is weak except calling a homophobe gay. I support it.
nitejonboy
I think Graham had it coming, I have no problem with what Chelsea said. If she’d said it against a closeted ally I would be offended, but a closeted bigot, nope, no sympathy here.
jckfmsincty
I’m for anything that annoys Lindsay Graham.
Tim
OMG…. you SJW whiners need to go lie down. Chelsea has been an ally for literally YEARS, and will continue to be, IME. You want to fault her for calling out a treasonous old closeted queen politician? Please. He friggin deserves it, and more. He vote against marriage equlity, DADT, immigration eguality, and more, all while sucking dick through a truck stop glory hole.
Kangol
What you do mean, “SJW whiners”? SJW is a right-wing term, and it’s right-wing “gays” here attacking Chelsea Handler, not liberal or progressive gay/LGBTQ people. The right-wing Log Cabinettes love many things, but “social justice” isn’t one of them. I completely agree that Lindsey Graham is horrendous. He was nearly outed by Mike Rogers years ago.
StupidBoy
This is literally her job. To call out authority figures on their hypocrisy. That has been the role of jesters/clown/comedians for the last several hundred years. She is not outing Joe Schmoe from down the street. Lindsey Graham has put himself in a position of authority to do harm to women and LGBTQ and minorities. He has paid for advertisements on media touting his right-wing platform. This is what she has been doing for years. She has been a gay advocate, a women’s rights advocate, and a voter’s rights advocate for a long time. Randy Rainbow does it. Mrs. Betty Bowers does it. Chelsea does it. Pay attention to the message and spread it to your coworkers and family members. The right-wing, Dominionist, Evangelical minority have been trying to chip away at union rights, women’s rights, gay rights, voter registration, health care, wages, civil liberties, immigration, and a whole litany of imagined threats to the white, straight, old, rich male world they hold dear and we are worse off for it than ever before. I regularly call out my coworkers for it and they either end up snapping at me or stop talking politics because I bring reason and science and compassion to their hate-filled diatribes. Graham is on video going ballistic over a woman who dared to question his president’s poor choice for the Supreme Court. He voted in a lifetime member who is anti-women, anti-abortion, anti-gay, and thinks the president can’t be made to answer legal inquiries. Support the people who question the status quo and spread the message, don’t detract from her.
chip_in_ga
Oh please, make it not be true. Let the straights have him, we sure as hell don’t want him.