Ex-mayor Bob Filner comes out in support of city attorney candidate Cabrera following anti-slut-shaming op-ed

On April 7, Democratic candidate for city attorney, Gil Cabrera, penned an op-ed for VoiceofSanDiego.com entitled “Slut Shaming Isn’t a Viable Legal Strategy.” He decried the tendency of lawyers to defend clients accused of sexual harassment to "dig into a victim’s sexual history, talk about how much she had to drink before an alleged assault, suggest she led the attacker on — or worse, question her sanity.” In the recent case against former mayor Bob Filner, “witnesses were asked disturbing personal questions about their sexual histories and social lives, as if that would somehow undermine the importance of what they had to say.” He promised that, if elected, “we will not engage in slut-shaming or victim blaming,” to the point of “seek[ing] appropriate court orders to restrict the type of questions that may be asked.”

On April 8, ex-Mayor Filner issued the following statement:

“I wish to express my gratitude for Mr. Cabrera’s excellent essay. In light of its excellent message, I have decided to endorse him for city attorney, even though he is a former head of the busybody Ethics Commission. I, too, think it’s a terrible thing to shame a slut. Then, as now, I believe that sluts should be celebrated, honored, and revered for the great favors they so freely bestow upon us. In fact, in most of the so-called instances of harassment that cost me my job as the people’s mayor, I was merely attempting to ascertain if the other party was, in fact, a slut or not. Cabrera is right again when he says that you can’t always tell by the way someone is dressed. Better to come right out and ask if she wants to have sex right there on the desk. No shame required. In fact, if we removed the stigma surrounding sluts, sexual harassment wouldn’t even be a thing any more. Asking someone for sex would be no different than asking them for coffee.”

“For the record,” concluded Filner, “I’m also opposed, like Mr. Cabrera, to victim-blaming. I’m the victim of a huge Republican witch hunt, and I’ve been blamed for a whole lot of things as a result. Most of them unfairly. I’ll do everything I can to help him get elected.”

As of press time, Mr. Cabrera had not responded to a request for comment.