Actress Rose McGowan has apologized for
saying “gay men are more misogynistic than straight men.”
The 41-year-old McGowan, best known for
playing Paige Matthews on the television series Charmed, made
the claim during a conversation with out author Brett Easton Ellis.
McGowan criticized a boycott against
the Dorchester Hotel collection, which is owned by the Sultan of
Brunei. LGBT groups launched the boycott in protest against passage
of a law that increases the penalties for gay sex in Brunei. The law
is scheduled to take effect in April.
McGowan, who earlier this year defied
the boycott and held a party at the Beverly Hills hotel, agreed with
Ellis' criticisms of the boycott – that it ultimately only hurts
the hotel staff – and went on to condemn LGBT groups for failing to
stand up for women in Arab states.
“Gay men are as misogynistic as
straight men, if not more so,” McGowan
said. “I have an indictment of the gay community right now,
I'm actually really upset with them.”
“You wanna talk about the fact that I
have heard nobody in the gay community, no gay males, standing up for
women on any level?”
“I think it's what happens to you as
a group when you are starting to get most of what you fought for.
What do you do now? What I would hope they would do is extend a hand
to women. Women, by-and-large, have very much helped the gay
community get to where they are today.”
“And I have seen not a single peep
from these people, who supposedly represent lesbians as well … when
the equal pay act was shut down by Republicans in the Senate, not a
single man mentioned that.”
“I see now people who have basically
fought for the right to stand on top of a float wearing an orange
Speedo and take molly [MDMA].”
It's “a huge problem,” she added.
In an op-ed published Wednesday in gay
glossy The
Advocate, McGowan apologized for making “a dumb
generalization” but stood behind her sentiment.
“Could I have articulated my
frustration in a better fashion? Undoubtedly. For that I apologize,
but I stand by my overall point,” she wrote.
To illustrate her point, McGowan used
an example from the NBC sitcom The Golden Girls.
“I was with a gay man the other night
who was talking about the sexually liberated Blanche Devereaux of The
Golden Girls,” she wrote.
“He was going on about what a slut she was. I asked why he'd
say that so thoughtlessly. If I'm not supposed to say (and I don't)
'that's so gay,' surely this man can start thinking about why it's
acceptable to slut-shame. He thanked me for opening his eyes. This
is how we do this, one on one. Catch it when it's happening, and
challenge it.”
McGowan concluded by stating that she
has a “big eye roll” reserved for those who question her
allegiance to the gay community.
“I feel like I'm in a fight with my
family,” she said.