Kevin Spacey molested a 14-year-old. His coming out as gay doesn't matter
“I’m looking for the least possible amount of responsibility,” said Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey in the 1999 drama American Beauty, eerily foreshadowing his own actions in reality. In an interview with BuzzFeed News on October 30, Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp alleged that in 1986, when he was a 14-year-old, Spacey (26 at that time) invited him over to his apartment for a party, and, at the end of the night, picked Rapp — a minor — up, placed him on his bed and climbed on top of him, making a sexual advance.
Spacey, in a tweet, has responded to the allegation in a manner that is only worthy of his character Frank Underwood in the critically acclaimed Netflix series House of Cards; he has successfully put a spin on the story with a distraction — and managed to make the international media take the bait.
The actor said, “I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.”
But if that half-baked apology seems barely enough, the next part of Spacey's statement is testament to the shrewd PR stunt he has pulled off. “This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life. I know that there are stories out there and that some have been fuelled by the fact that I was so protective of my privacy. As those closest to me know, in my life, I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behaviour,” he wrote, choosing perhaps the worst opportunity ever to come out to the world.
— Kevin Spacey (@KevinSpacey) October 30, 2017
What Spacey has effectively aced here, is the perfect diversion, while taking the “least possible amount of responsibility”, and the media, sadly, has been complicit in shielding him. As media critic and political commentator Adam H Johnson, among many others, points out: Several news outlets have run stories, not with the shocking and disturbing allegations of sexual assault on a minor as the hook; for them, it seems, Kevin Spacey finally coming out of the closet is the bigger deal.
“Kevin Spacey come out in emotional tweet,” wrote ABC News; “Kevin Spacey announced on Sunday night that he will ‘live as a gay man’,” announced the New York Daily News; “Actor Kevin Spacey declares he lives life as a gay man,” noted Reuters.
What was a story about sexual harassment is now being presented with a “rainbow filter” on it.
amazing how well this sleight-of-hand worked pic.twitter.com/5n24Ud1ppV
— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) October 30, 2017
And it’s not just the fact that the news media is choosing to highlight Spacey’s gay moment that’s problematic. It’s the gay moment too that has catastrophic repercussions. Vanity Fair film critic Richard Lawson, in a series of tweets, tried to illustrate the inherent dangers of conflating an apology for child molestation with coming out to the world.
The psychology of the closet is dark and cruel and self-punishing. That Spacey has dwelt in that for years is sad. But 14 is 14. https://t.co/f152ZIE6pQ
— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017
Coming out as a gay man is not the same thing as coming out as someone who preyed on a 14-year-old. Conflating those things is disgusting
— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017
This exposes the gay community to a million tired old criticisms and conspiracies.
— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017
The distance we've had to walk to get away from the notion that we're all pedophiles is significant.
— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017
For a famous person to deflect these accusations with a long-in-the-making coming out is so cruel to his supposed new community it stings
— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017
How dare you implicate us all in this
— Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017
Lawson’s concern is legitimate. Earlier this year, Breitbart editor, conservative political commentator and a leading face of the American alt-Right Milo Yiannopoulos, according to a Vox editorial, resurrected the dangerous old myth about gay men and paedophilia: the idea that gay men are sexual deviants who approve of all sorts of abhorrent behaviour, including paedophilia and child sexual abuse.
Spacey, whose own sexual orientation has been a matter of intrigue for decades, could not have picked a worse moment to come out.
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Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Rapp recalled the only other time that he ran into Kevin Spacey — at the 1999 Tony Awards. "It was that thing that I've always wondered over these years: Does he remember? Does he know who I am? Does he have any recollection? Is there any feeling about what happened? Does he regret it? I don't know anything about what his relationship is to what happened. He looked at me, and I thought I saw some form of recognition, and I quickly looked away. I passed him and went out the door.”
Even if Spacey had not come out of the closet, one thing is certain: the era of hushed voices, whispers about predators, rapists and creeps is over. No one in Hollywood is immune to allegations of sexual assault anymore, no matter when the assault took place. Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was just the beginning; with the Pandora’s Box now lying open, it is only a matter of time before the mighty, whose influence kept the silence of victims going, eventually fall just like a house of cards.