Chelsea Handler faces backlash for National Coming Out Day tweet about Lindsey Graham

Chelsea Handler is facing criticism for a controversial joke involving Senator Lindsey Graham that she tweeted out on National Coming Out Day.

The comedian has never shied away from divisive humor, and her tweet on Thursday was no different.

"If you’re wondering why Republicans took a sick day today, it’s probably because it’s #NationalComingOutDay," she wrote. "Looking at you @LindseyGrahamSC."

The backlash was swift for Handler, with a myriad of Twitter users responding to her "joke" and condemning her for not only using being gay as a punchline, but also for speculating about Graham's sexuality in the first place.

"These. Jokes. Aren't. Funny." one person wrote her, while another said "damn this joke sucks."

"Hey, this isn’t allyship," someone else responded. "It reinforces a negative connotation about homosexuality and links bigotry to being in the closet which is unhelpful. This tweet is trash. And you know it."

"Sometimes twitter jokes work & sometimes they don't, but maybe let's all try to a little harder not to make jokes about straight people where them possibly being gay is the punchline!" one user explained. "It makes young ppl think gay = bad."

Handler has yet to react to the negative response she got from the tweet.