San Diego Mayor Accused of Sexual Harassment To Keynote Benefit for Sexual-Assault Victims

San Diego mayor Bob Filner, who is facing calls that he resign over charges that he sexually harassed and intimidated female employees and constituents, will be the keynote speaker at a benefit for victims of sexual assault, reports KGTV ABC10.

The National Military Women Veterans Association, which is hosting the event, had planned to present Filner with a lifetime achievement award for his work on behalf of sexual-assault victims and women veterans. The group has rescinded the award but has announced that the mayor will address the scandal at the event at the end of August. “He is now the keynote speaker on these injustices,” the group said in a statement.

Mayor Filner issued an apology last week in response to what were then unspecified allegations of abuse, in which he admitted that “I have failed to fully respect the women who work for me and with me, and that at times I have intimidated them.” He said that his actions had been “inappropriate and wrong” and that he would seek help. He described his behavior as something that “would have been tolerated in the past” but is “being called out in this generation.”

Since then, allegations of his wrongdoing, many coming from his ex-backers as well as from his now former fiancée, have been nauseatingly specific. One former employee has called him “tragically unsafe for any woman to approach.”

Filner has continued to resist pressure to step down. At a press conference Tuesday, he assured the people of San Diego, “I take these allegations very seriously. They concern me very greatly.” But “I am not going to resign.”