There is a blatant gender difference between the response to Representative Hill's misconduct and Mayor Morse's misconduct. The cruel method of Representative Hill's exposure was added to her burden of guilt, although there was no question that the one instance of her having a relationship that crossed professional boundaries was consensual. Representative Hill received very little support from her colleagues; some of them even ridiculed her while she was still in shock and devastated by the permanent, cumulative, neverending injury that nonconsensually shared pornography is. The people who hurt her are almost never discussed. Everything has been placed on her.
For Mayor Morse, the method of his exposure was far less traumatic, far less vindictive, and far less permanent in terms of making him as vulnerable as a human being can be to the worst in people for the rest of his life. He subsequently admitted to several inappropriate relationships; he had sex with college students.
Two investigations are still pending. However, the method of his exposure has been used to exonerate him of worse behavior before the investigations have been finished. Even the behavior to which he has already admitted has been recast as appropriate and those who object to it have been characterized as homophobic.
