In accepting a Human Rights Campaign
(HRC) award, openly gay actor Greg Rikaart slammed Texas Governor
Rick Perry.
HRC honored Rikaart with its Visibility
Award at its annual gala in New Orleans on Saturday.
The 37-year-old Rikaart, who plays
Kevin Fisher on the soap opera The Young and the Restless,
alluded to comments Perry made in accepting his prize.
Earlier this month, during an
appearance in San Francisco, Perry was asked whether he believes
being gay is a disorder.
“Whether or not you feel compelled to
follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide
not to do that,” Perry answered. “I may have the genetic coding
that I'm inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do
that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way.”
(Related: Rick
Perry compares being gay to an alcoholic.)
“We all know that there are far too
many stories that still don't have that same happy ending,” Rikaart
said of a former classmate who had forgiven his childhood tormentors.
“Bullied LGBT youth are still committing suicide, same-sex couples
are still being denied benefits afforded to heterosexual couples, and
Rick Perry thinks we're all a bunch of alcoholics.”
“In Rick Perry's defense, he is a big
dumb asshole,” he added. (The video is embedded on this page.
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Rikaart came out last year when he
responded to the Supreme Court ruling which led to the fall of
California's Proposition 8 by tweeting a photograph of himself and
writer Robert Sudduth and the caption, “Not getting married anytime
soon, but celebrating #equality tonight nonetheless.”