Mad Men co-star Bryan Batt and Milk scribe Dustin Lance Black are the latest gay celebrities to speak out against Newsweek's slam on gay actors who take on straight roles.

“Gay actors have been playing straight since Euripides,” Batt, who is openly gay, told ABC News. “It really saddens me that someone actually thinks this way and that Newsweek would actually print it.”

Batt, 47, was referring to an April 26 story titled Straight Jacket. In the feature, openly gay contributor Ramin Setoodeh is critical of openly gay actors who take on straight roles.

Setoodeh says it's “OK for straight actors to play gay” referring to Jake Gyllenhaal's and Heath Ledger's 2005 gay cowboy romance flick Brokeback Mountain, but adds that “its rare for someone to pull off the trick in reverse.”

He then cuts into Sean Hayes' portrayal of straight man Chuck in the Broadway revival of Promises, Promises: “He comes off as wooden and insincere, like he's trying to hide something, which of course he is.” Hayes, who recently came out gay on the cover of gay glossy The Advocate, has been nominated for a Best Actor in a Musical Tony Award for his Broadway debut.

Setoodeh also takes aim at Jonathan Groff's performance on Fox's musical comedy hit Glee, saying he's “so distracting, I'm starting to wonder if Groff's character on the show is supposed to be secretly gay.”

“I could care less who these actors do, it's what they do,” Batt said. “When are we going to stop labeling everyone? How many ties have I been referred to as 'out gay actor?' Do we say, 'out heterosexual actor' when we refer to Tom Hanks?”

“It's called acting, people,” Batt added.

On Wednesday, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) joined openly gay Glee creator Ryan Murphy in urging Newsweek to apologize. Murphy asked fans to dump Newsweek until an apology is at hand, and demanded the weekly apologize to Hayes and other “brave out actors who were cruelly singled out in his damaging, needlessly cruel, and mind-blowingly bigoted piece.”

In backing Murphy's call for an apology, GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios said: “Whether he intended it to or not, Ramin Setoodeh's article in Newsweek sends a false and damaging message about gay actors by endorsing the idea that there are limits to the roles they are able to play.”

Dustin Lance Black and Barrios questioned Setoodeh's motives in a piece published Wednesday at The Hollywood Reporter: “Maybe Setoodeh can't see Glee and Promises, Promises except through a lens of dark stereotypes he's inherited. Maybe he's got some axe to grind. But whatever the reason, with the stakes so high for gay Americans at this moment, it is no excuse for his editors inflicting such hurtful – and baseless – musings on the readers of Newsweek.”