Ian McKellen Issued An Apology For His Comments About Kevin Spacey And Bryan Singer
If you took your Lord of The Rings DVD box-set and dramatically fed each disk to a blazing fire on account of Sir Ian McKellen’s bad hot take on Kevin Spacey and Bryan Singer, why’d you do that? The fumes will kill you! Also, Ian has apologized. Comments Ian made on the #QueerAF podcast last week surfaced, and they were ick-nasty. He posited that Kevin and Bryan’s predatory behavior was a result of their having been closeted. He said if they were open about “themselves and their desires, they wouldn’t have started abusing people” which is patently absurd. Thankfully, Ian has seen the light, which is hard to avoid when your publicist is pointing a flashlight directly into your peep-holes.
Ian issued his apology on Twitter but he didn’t use Apple Notes App, so you know it’s sincere. He signed it and everything!
1/4 As part of an extended podcast recently, I suggested that if closeted people were instead open about their sexuality they wouldn’t abuse others. That, of course, is wrong. pic.twitter.com/9k6KLH2hx9
— Ian McKellen (@IanMcKellen) March 2, 2019
Parts 2-4 were just his posting the text of the letter. If you have that rare and enviable disease called Twitter Blindness, here’s the crux of his apology.
“My intention was to encourage the LGBT audience I was addressing to be proud and open about their sexuality. In doing so, my point was clumsily expressed. I would never, ever trivialise or condone abuse of any kind. I deeply regret my careless remarks and apologise unreservedly for any distress I caused.”
The bar is so low these days that I’m sitting here fist pumping because Ian said “distress I caused” instead of “if you were offended”. That’s huge! Good job to whoever collected Sir Ian.
He also, possibly, tried to smooth over his comments where he made light of the possibility that he might be accused of something he did in the past, but wouldn’t know if his accusers were lying, or he had simply forgotten. Um, I don’t think possible sexual assault is covered under the “senior moments” clause, Ian. He said:
When it comes to abuse by people in positions of power, the correct response is clear. The accusers must be heard and the accused given the opportunity to clear their names. If the accusations prove credible, the abuser’s access to power should be removed.
That’s nice. It would have been nicer if he acknowledged that Kevin and Bryan allegedly preying on children is actually the issue here, and not their sexuality. But I guess we have take what we can get.
Pic: Wenn.com