Rose McGowan to the transgender community: I’m ‘profoundly sorry’
Rose McGowan has apologised for her past comments about the trans community.(PinkNews)
Actor Rose McGowan has apologised over previous comments she has made about the trans community, telling PinkNews: “I am profoundly sorry.”
Charmed star McGowan came under fire for shouting at a trans woman at an event promoting her book Brave at Barnes & Noble in New York in February 2018.
The 45-year old star had been confronted at the event over comments she made about the trans community on RuPaul’s podcast What’s The Tee? in July 2017. Speaking on the podcast, McGowan said that trans women could not relate to cisgender women’s experience of “living in this world as a woman.”
Now, however, the actor and activist is apologising.
Watch Rose McGowan’s apology to the trans community below:
“I would like to say I’m sorry,” McGowan told PInkNews.
“I didn’t have the correct language. I am, you know, an older woman from Hollywood.
“It’s not exactly the place for understanding the language.”
Following the Barnes & Noble incident, McGowan said she also met up with Stonewall to better understand the trans community.
Rose McGowan: “I didn’t have the correct language”
“It’s just been a learning process and evolution,” McGowan continued.
“I’m here to say to people that are scared of trans-ness, we’re all women, we’re just different kinds of women and different kinds of men.
“There’s a huge spectrum to be had in that. And I think that’s a really beautiful thing.”
“I’m here to say to people that are scared of trans-ness, we’re all women, we’re just different kinds of women and different kinds of men.”
—Rose McGowan
McGowan, who starred in 1996 cult horror movie Scream, added that she had worked with the LGBT+ community for years.
“I’ve long been involved in this community, just behind the scenes, not in front of the cameras,” she said.
“To have that ripped away is really, really heartbreaking and something that I am profoundly sorry for.
“I really do understand a lot more about the terminology, the struggle and have a lot more respect for it. And I think that’s important.”
I thought TERFs were made up, says Rose McGowan
The actor, who also shared details with PinkNews about her relationship with non-binary model Rain Dove, went on to address the backlash from trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) over the reform of the Gender Recognition Act.
“I really, honestly thought TERFs were made up,” McGowan said.
“I didn’t think they actually existed. I thought they can’t be real. And it’s shocking to me because it’s so… I mean don’t you realise what you fought for? You know as women, cis women, don’t you know what you fought for?”
McGowan continued: “We fought for the right to have a voice and to be counted and that fight is not so different, you know, fundamentally, at its core.”
She added that feminists who did not support the trans community would be end up “completely on the wrong side of history.”
McGowan also spoke to PinkNews about how she has dated women in the past, but concealed her same-sex relationships for fear of reprisal in Hollywood.
McGowan also addressed statements from TERF groups, which have claimed that cisgender women are at risk of being assaulted by trans women in women-only spaces.
“You can say to people there’s nothing to be afraid of but there’s really—walk out your door you’re at far more risk just walking down the street than I would say of a trans person in the bathroom, who’s literally just trying to go to the damn bathroom, like you are, or changing,” she said.
In September, a US survey showed there is no empirical evidence to the claim that allowing transgender people to use the public facility of their choice would increase violations of privacy and crime.
