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Kevin Spacey Makes Offensive Decision to Come Out After Being Accused of Sexually Abusing a Teen

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Anthony Rapp Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey responded to sexual abuse allegations from actor by making the bizarre and disappointing choice to use the accusations as a moment to come out of the closet, thus conflating being gay with sexual abuse and pedophilia.

Rapp made the allegations in an interview with Buzzfeed News. The incident happened at a party at Spacey's house when Rapp was 14, Spacey was 26.

Buzzfeed News reports:

He went, gladly, and alone. Rapp said he honestly cannot recall what he told his mother — who died from cancer in 1997 — about the party, but he stressed that the idea of him attending a party held by an adult Broadway actor did not seem like a cause for concern. “I imagine that I might be opening my poor late mother up to some criticisms for how she parented, but, you know, it was a different era,” he said. “I went to work by myself. I would walk to the subway, and go to the theater by myself.”

When he arrived at Spacey's apartment, Rapp quickly realized that he was the only nonadult there — which, again, did not worry him, since he so often had found himself in similar situations as a child actor. The bigger issue: “I didn't know anyone,” he said. “And I was quickly kind of bored.”

Rapp said he ended up wandering into the bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed, and watching TV well past midnight.

At some point, Rapp said he turned to see Spacey standing at the bedroom door. And that's when he first realized that everyone else had left the party. They were alone.

“My memory was that I thought, Oh, everybody's gone. Well, yeah, I should probably go home,” Rapp said. Spacey, he recalled, “sort of stood in the doorway, kind of swaying. My impression when he came in the room was that he was drunk.” Rapp doesn't remember Spacey saying anything to him. Instead, Rapp said, “He picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don't, like, squirm away initially, because I'm like, ‘What's going on?' And then he lays down on top of me.”

“He was trying to seduce me,” Rapp said. “I don't know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”

Rapp said Spacey laid on top of him on the bed “pressing” into him for a long time and Rapp was able to squirm out and escape amid Spacey's protests.

More at Buzzfeed.

Space responded in a tweet in which he also came out as a gay man, saying “I choose now to live as a gay man.”

“I have a lot of respect and admiration for Anthony Rapp as an actor. I'm beyond horrified to hear his story. I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.

“This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life. I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fuelled by the fact that I have been 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 behavior.

Spacey's statement, which connects being gay to pedophilia and sexual assault, has prompted furious backlash.

https://twitter.com/Rambobiggs/status/924870141384544257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fnews%2Fkevin-spacey-provokes-furious-twitter-backlash-anthony-rapp-apology-gay-admission-1052847

https://twitter.com/rosemcgowan/status/924866515140268032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fnews%2Fkevin-spacey-provokes-furious-twitter-backlash-anthony-rapp-apology-gay-admission-1052847

https://twitter.com/kylenabecker/status/924871216007122949?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fnews%2Fkevin-spacey-provokes-furious-twitter-backlash-anthony-rapp-apology-gay-admission-1052847

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