British TV personality Sue Perkins has accused Kevin Spacey of setting back the gay rights movement by using an apology for an alleged assault to ‘come out’.
Perkins, a former Great British Baking Show co-presenter, has joined the celebrities who have slammed Spacey, accusing him of hiding behind his sexuality to play down his sexual harassment.
“Well done Kev. You stay silent on your sexuality until the time comes when you can conflate it with an alleged sexual assault on a minor,” she tweets. “In doing so, you simultaneously undervalue the horrific nature of the allegation and set back the LGBT+ community. Well done.”
Spacey has also come under fire from Rose McGowan, who is currently waging a war on Hollywood harassers after she was outed as one of the women who was paid for her silence following a sordid encounter with disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, Wanda Sykes, Rosie O’Donnell, and singer Clay Aiken, who tweeted: “Hey @KevinSpacey you can choose to act like a pervert; you can’t ‘choose’ to be gay.”
Meanwhile, Zachary Quinto has also spoken out on social media, writing: “It is deeply sad and troubling that this is how Kevin Spacey has chosen to come out. Not by standing up as a point of pride – in the light of all his many awards and accomplishments – thus inspiring tens of thousands of struggling LGBTQ kids around the world. But as a calculated manipulation to deflect attention from a very serious accusation that he attempted to molest one.
“I am sorry to hear of Anthony Rapp‘s experience and subsequent suffering. And I am sorry that Kevin only saw fit to acknowledge his truth when he thought it would serve him – just as his denial served him for so many years. May Anthony Rapp‘s voice be the one which is amplified here. Victim’s (sic) voices are the ones that deserve to be heard.”
Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamatory (GLAAD) bosses have also lashed out at Kevin Spacey for his decision to come out amid an accusation of sexual assault.
“Coming-out stories should not be used to deflect from allegations of sexual assault,” Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, says in a statement. “This is not a coming-out story about Kevin Spacey, but a story of survivorship by Anthony Rapp and all those who bravely speak out against unwanted sexual advances.”
