Kevin Spacey Comes Out as Gay After Anthony Rapp Alleges the Actor Made Sexual Advances Toward Him at 14

Kevin Spacey has come out as gay as part of his response to Star Trek and Rent actor Anthony Rapp coming forward Sunday with an allegation that the House of Cards star made an unwanted sexual advance towards him when Rapp was just 14.

“I have a lot of respect and admiration for Anthony Rapp as an actor. I’m beyond horrified to hear his story,” Spacey says in a statement posted on his Twitter account late Sunday night. “I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I a sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years.”

“This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life,” Spacey’s statement continues. “I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fueled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy. As those closes to me know, in my life, I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic relationships with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behavior.”

“My memory was that I thought, ‘Oh, everybody’s gone. Well, yeah, I should probably go home,’ ” Rapp, who is openly gay, told Buzzfeed. Spacey, he recalled, “sort of stood in the doorway, kind of swaying. My impression when he came in the room was that he was drunk … He picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don’t, like, squirm away initially, because I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ And then he lays down on top of me.”

“He was trying to seduce me,” Rapp said. “I don’t know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.”

Rapp previously shared this story with The Advocate in 2001 but declined to name Spacey at the time. He tweeted Sunday that he decided to come forward with his story because of people who have come forward with their own stories of sexual harassment in recent weeks following the allegations made against Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein.

“I came forward with my story, standing on the shoulders of the many courageous women and men who have been speaking out,” Rapp tweeted, “to shine a light and hopefully make a difference, as they have done for me.”