Alec Baldwin: ‘I’m not a homophobe at all’
By Nick Levine
Alec Baldwin has insisted he is “not a homophobe at all” in a lengthy article in which he states his intention to withdraw from public life.
The former 30 Rock star was caught on camera last November (2013) calling a TMZ photographer a “c*cksucking f*g” – the second time in five months he had been heard to use an anti-gay slur.
Leading American LGBT advocacy group GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) quickly spoke out against the actor, saying: “Mr Baldwin can’t lend his support for equality on paper, while degrading gay people in practice. It’s clearly time he listens to the calls from so many LGBT people and allies to end this pattern of anti-gay slurs.”
In the wake of the controversy, US network MSNBC cancelled Baldwin’s chatshow after just five episodes, and Baldwin has now seen fit to defend himself at length in a 5,000-word Vulture article titled ‘Good-bye, Public Life’.
“Am I a homophobe?” Baldwin writes. “Look, I work in show business. I am awash in gay people, as colleagues and as friends. I’m doing Rock of Ages one day, making out with Russell Brand. Soon after that, I’m advocating with Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Cynthia Nixon for marriage equality. I’m officiating at a gay friend’s wedding. I’m not a homophobic person at all. But this is how the world now sees me. I haven’t changed, but public life has.”
Later in the article, he appears to deny using an anti-gay slur during his confrontation with TMZ‘s photographer, saying : “I’m sorry, I can’t let go of this — do people really, really believe that, when I shouted at that guy, I called him a ‘faggot’ on-camera? Do you honestly believe I would give someone like TMZ’s Harvey Levin, of all people, another club to beat me with?”
During the article, Baldwin also says he was “labelled a homophobic bigot by Andrew Sullivan, Anderson Cooper, and others in the Gay Department of Justice”, and recalls a conversation with a person he refers to as “an F-to-M tranny”.
He signs off by insisting: “I’ve lived this for 30 years, I’m done with it”, saying “I think I want to go back to being an actor now” having apparently “slid into showbusiness” over the years.