Yesterday, actor Alec Baldwin took to Twitter using anti-gay slurs in response to a Daily Mail piece regarding his wife.
Following outreach earlier today, Alec Baldwin wrote the following to GLAAD:
"My ill-advised attack on George Stark of the Daily Mail had absolutely nothing to do with issues of anyone's sexual orientation. My anger was directed at Mr. Stark for blatantly lying and disseminating libelous information about my wife and her conduct at our friend's funeral service. As someone who fights against homophobia, I apologize.
I have worked, periodically, with numerous marriage equality organizations, especially over the past couple of years, to achieve the very rights that gay couples are earning by recent court decisions. I would not advocate violence against someone for being gay and I hope that my friends at GLAAD and the gay community understand that my attack on Mr. Stark in no way was the result of homophobia.
Many Thanks, Alec Baldwin."
This evening GLAAD Vice President of Communications Rich Ferraro replied to the apology sent to GLAAD:
"Alec Baldwin is making it clear that the intent behind his tweets does not excuse his language, especially at a time when there were 11 incidents of violence against gay men in New York City just last month. As we all work to end such senseless acts of violence, allies like Baldwin are right to use these moments to reinforce support for the community and LGBT equality."
His words yesterday do not match his history of actively supporting LGBT equality. While Alec's apology is a first step, this should not be the end of the dialogue. There are now other visible actions that he should take to fight anti-gay violence and GLAAD looks forward to working with him.
Alec Baldwin has worked with several organizations and added his voice to a highly visible campaign by Fight Back NY to encourage the State Senate to pass marriage equality with out actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson. He has also attended the GLSEN Respect Awards. Baldwin had a guest role on Will & Grace and played a gay character in the 2006 Off-Broadway revival of Entertaining Mr. Sloane.
You can find out more about the Anti-Violence Project's work to end anti-LGBT violence here. 2012 saw the 4th highest murder rate of LGBTQ and HIV-affected people (LGBTQH) in history, according to the annual Hate Violence Report released by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP). Some of the groups most likely to experience hate violence included transgender people (particularly transgender women), people of color (particularly transgender people of color), and gay men.
