Accused of sexually assaulting a child, Kevin Spacey would like you to know he's gay

On the other hand, Corey Feldman has testified publicly that this sort of thing is not uncommon in Hollywood. Perhaps #notallrichpeople, but there are certainly enough people who use their position and wealth to coerce, abuse, and manipulate others that you would be wise to be on your guard when dealing with them.

9 Likes

Well, that’s why the age of sexual consent is 14 or 16 in most parts of the developed world. With some safeguards against exploitation by older people.

1 Like

11 Likes

I think people are skipping the part where he starts with not even remembering the incident, yet not denying. After all, just because he doesn’t remember doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. And if it happened, and he really doesn’t remember, the most common cause of memory blanks tend to be inebriation.

I see it as one of the more honest and open statements out there.

Whatever the legal age is in “most of the world”, and whether it is the correct age is debateable, but not really relevant to the victim.

Anthony Rapp believes he was too young, and that Spacey was trying to exploit him.

He was trying to seduce me," Rapp told Buzzfeed. “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 that he was able to push Spacey away and soon left the apartment — but that the incident has stuck with him.

The older I get, and the more I know, I feel very fortunate that something worse didn’t happen," he said. “And at the same time, the older I get, the more I can’t believe it. I could never imagine [that] anyone else I know would do something like that to a 14-year-old boy.”

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/30/560779174/kevin-spacey-apologizes-to-anthony-rapp-over-alleged-sexual-misconduct

9 Likes

ha-ha-no-beardy

11 Likes

I read it as “I’m confirming that I’m gay to demonstrate that this quasi-apology is more honest than my usual evasiveness about my personal life”.

Like most pooves, when I hear “gay” I don’t automatically think “child predator?”, and the text didn’t make me feel like I was missing that piece of the puzzle. Possibly I am naïve, or perhaps other people are reading this with the Daily Mail’s software whispering at the back of their brains? Who can say.

(I can’t find much enthusiasm for debating the merits of the actual apology. Compared to not molesting people in the first place, no apology is worth all that much).

1 Like

Sounds like you actually buy his apology. If someone you knew was drunk and touched your underage child, and told you he’s sorry he hurt your feelings but that he was drunk, and that he’s gay. Would you believe them? Would you believe he meant that apology?

2 Likes

Sure, Spacey’s alleged behavior would be wrong even if both person had been 29. It that’s not the argument that had been made.

Are we aware of his having relationships with underaged boys?

I’m aware he, at 26, tried to, one time. And that sounds plausible. Sure.

That opens me up to believing more inappropriate is possible, too.

BUT I really work to avoid the rounding error where an accusation of something just awful becomes factual proof of other unaccused things. And where an incident from 30 years back means worse things are true today.

So slow down in the name of justice. Sounds like he definitely was a scumbag at 26, or at least a bit compulsive and inappropriate. Let’s not go hanging him just yet for a habit he may not have had.

Wanting something, and taking it… not the same verbs for a reason.

1 Like

“Well known”. I don’t think so. I had no idea of Spacey’s sexuality until the incident on Hampstead Heath in London a few years ago, and I never had a clue of any predatory incidents in his past. Maybe it was well known in the whisper networks you’re a part of, but the point is that whisper networks are not well known, else they wouldn’t be whisper networks.

2 Likes

how so. How is one 26 year old making a pass at another uninterested 26 year old… at all immoral…?

Sounds like NO was taken for an answer, do you disagree?

Was he leveraging the 30 years of Hollywood success he had not yet had, or something? Are you possibly crediting 26 year old Spacey with the kind of power held by 55 year old Spacey?

2 Likes

Or realise it is wrong in the first place :wink:

2 Likes

Folks who play these kinds of inappropriate power games already think about it a LOT more than twice. Most of us don’t even get around to considering it once.

But compulsives are not normal healthy people. I’d advise you find a new chapter in your rulebook and not assume they play by your rules. They have sick rules, and are ruled by passions.

That’s why we have to have dispassionate laws, and rational discussions, and clear lines - else we’re no different from what we would judge.

2 Likes

On another forum I was on this week, during a discussion about harassers in a niche industry, a moderator was outed as having had sex with an underage girl when he was in his mid-20s a decade or so ago, and either coercing her into sex or attempting to (or it might have been violent rape, it was unclear) when she was of legal age. He resigned as a mod almost immediately, then was banned from the forum, and his rep in the industry has taken a severe hit. I don’t know what any external follow-up has occurred, but there weren’t any blustering excuses to the community or faux-pologies, so small kudos for that.

An interesting coincidence, and a possible point of comparison.

2 Likes

Used the wrong word, i should have typed “Having relations with…”, though with the underaged boys i am unfamiliar with what other allegations are. If he came on to them, touched them, or if it went further than that. I can’t say.

1 Like

The only progress I see here is that being outed as a sexual predator finally counts as a bigger scandal than being outed as gay.

11 Likes

and yet a simple google search provided plenty of hits regarding these issues (see my additionally linked couple of articles regarding).

You are applying a double standard…“because it is well known to YOU, doesn’t mean it is well known” can also be “because it is NOT well known to YOU, doesn’t mean it isn’t well known”.

Google search Kevin Spacey homosexual allegations misconduct. You will find enough items that do not seem to me to be “whisper” based. Maybe we differ what news outlets are considered legitimate or whispers.

2 Likes

From the sound of it, a drunken pass grope on a 26yo would be more a tsk-tsk wrong, rather than an actual, you know, criminal wrong.

Not a legal topic I’m familiar with, but I imagine that just propositioning someone under legal age would also be a crime, whether groping was involved or not.

2 Likes

I like your equation, let’s apply it towards Billy Cosby

Progress != Rich-Black-popular-rapist-misrepresenting-horny ?

1 Like