Kevin Spacey comes out as gay after sexual assault allegation

Late Sunday, actor Anthony Rapp accused Kevin Spacey of making an unwanted sexual advance at him when he was a minor.

Early this morning, Spacey said on Twitter that he did not remember the incident, and he came out as gay.

Rapp, who has been doing theater for most of his career but is currently playing the role of Lieutenant Paul Stamets on Star Trek: Discovery, related the entire story of the incident to Buzzfeed, which he says happened when he was 14 and working on his first Broadway play and Spacey was 26.

What Rapp says happened

Spacey invited Rapp to a party at his place in 1986, and Rapp said that he spent most of the evening watching TV in Spacey’s bedroom. When the party was over, Rapp saw Spacey standing in the doorway.

“My memory was that I thought, Oh, everybody’s gone. Well, yeah, I should probably go home,” Rapp said. Spacey “sort of stood in the doorway, kind of swaying. My impression when he came in the room was that he was drunk.”

Spacey then picked Rapp up “like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold.” He said he was confused, and then Spacey lay down on top of him.

“He was trying to seduce me,” Rapp said. “I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”

He said he remembers Spacey tightening his arms around him and pressing on him on the bed, and that he had to “squirm” to get away. He went to the bathroom and closed the door, composed himself, and then went to the front door of the apartment.

“And he was like, ‘Are you sure you wanna go?’ I said, ‘Yes, good night,’ and then I did leave.”

Rapp said he didn’t tell his mother about what happened since he wasn’t ready to come out to her. Over the decades, he told the story to a few friends (and Buzzfeed confirmed this) and watched as the closeted Spacey’s career in theater, film, and television took off. He met with a lawyer who told him he didn’t have a case, and he only encountered Spacey once since then.

Now, following the allegations of sexual harassment and assault made against producer Harvey Weinstein, Rapp said he can no longer be silent. “Part of what allowed the Harvey situation to occur was that there was this witting and unwitting conspiracy of silence. The only way these things can continue is if there’s no attention being paid to it, if it’s getting forgotten.”

Kevin Spacey comes out in response

Following the publication of Rapp’s interview with Buzzfeed, Spacey posted a response on Twitter.

First, Spacey wrote that he is “beyond horrified” at Rapp’s story, but says that he was drunk and doesn’t remember what happened that night. He wrote that he owes Rapp “the sincerest apology” “if I did behave then as he describes.”

Then Spacey goes on in his tweet to come out as gay. “This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life,” he wrote. “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.”

pic.twitter.com/X6ybi5atr5

— Kevin Spacey (@KevinSpacey) October 30, 2017

Spacey has long been rumored to be gay. In 1999, The Sunday Times Magazine reported on rumors that the then-40-year-old actor was gay, and he responded in several interviews that year by denying the rumors.

In 2007, he told Gotham magazine that he didn’t want to discuss his “private” life. “I’ve just never believed in pimping my personal life out for publicity. I’m not interested in doing it. Never will do it. They can gossip all they want; they can speculate all they want. I just happen to believe that there’s a public life and there’s a private life. Everybody has a right to a private life no matter what their profession is.”

Rapp, on the other hand, has been out since 1992, years before Ellen Degeneres came out and subsequently lost her sitcom.

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