General Hospital Star Ingo Rademacher Clarifies Anti-Trans Post

Ingo Rademacher, who plays Jax on General Hospital, has taken to Instagram to share his side of the story following a strong reaction from his co-stars about a repost he made to his Instagram story. The actor is clarifying what was going through his mind when he shared the post mocking the transgender community. He also addressed reports that he’s no longer a part of the show’s cast.

Ingo Rademacher Clarifies Sharing Of Transphobic Post

It all started with a post by conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey, who shared images of Admiral Rachel L. Levine, the 17th Assistant Secretary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Winsome Sears, the recently elected first Lt. Governor of Virginia.

“Hello, and welcome to ClownTown, where the Dude on the left [referring to Levine] is an empowering woman, and the woman on the right [Sears] is a white supremacist.” She ended the post with a clown face and tagged @americathebeautiful.

After Rademacher shared the post in his Instagram stories, GH transgender cast member Cassandra James (Terry) posted a tweet that read: “I am aware of a transphobic post shared by a fellow General Hospital actor. Shame on you. You have some serious unlearning and education to do. I feel deeply disappointed that such a public display of ignorance could come from our GH family.”

While James did not name the cast member in question, her colleague, Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis) did. “The fellow actor, #IngoRademacher, is mercifully no longer a part of the #gh cast,” Grahn shared on Twitter. “Transphobia & misgendering are disgusting & should be unacceptable in any industry, including soaps/acting. I stand with my costar, @cassandrajames_, & the trans community.”

Earlier this year, Rademacher encouraged his sons to stand up to bullying at school. “[We] tell them comes a responsibility to stand up for kids that are being bullied and to never jump on the bandwagon if they see a group of kids teasing/bullying a kid because they might be or are LGBTQ,” Rademacher shared.

Ingo Rademacher Speaks Out

Now, Rademacher is speaking out in a new Instagram post, which can be seen below as can James and Grahn’s tweets. “All right, guys, I’m going to address this real quick before this gets completely out of control — of course, it already has,” Rademacher said in a video shot while behind the wheel of his car.

“The left always likes to run with ‘Ingo Rademacher Is Transphobic’ instead of pointing out that [the post I shared] was [someone else] making a comparison [that] while it’s not okay to call a black woman a white supremacist, I don’t really think either that’s okay to call a transgender an empowered woman. Because where does that leave women? Think about that for a second. Where does that leave women? Women have fought so hard to get on a level playing field with men. They weren’t allowed to do anything back in the day. They were nothing. So, I just…I don’t agree with that.”

Rademacher apologized for reposting the message verbatim instead of getting out some editing tools on his computer. “I do apologize for not crossing out ‘dude’ and not putting ‘transgender’ I apologize for that. Me, personally, I wouldn’t have written it that way. It was somebody’s else’s post. Again, that’s not an excuse. I should have crossed it out.”

Apologizing To Cassandra James

The actor apologized again for not writing his feelings on the topic correctly or editing the post he shared. “I would not refer to a transgender person as a ‘dude.’ If they want to be referred to as a ‘she.’ Cassandra, I apologize to you as well, sincerely. I think you’re an absolute talent. You’re very beautiful, as well. I don’t think a transphobic man would say that. I think you’re absolutely gorgeous. I really do.”

Rademacher says that he and James are likely to disagree with things and he’s okay with that, but what he’s not okay with is not having open discussions and debates about issues. “The left just shuts everything down,” he said. “I have a real problem with that. I don’t like bullies. Again, I was wrong about posting it like that.”

The actor added that he’ll update followers on his GH status when he can. In the meantime, he suggests, “Let’s all try to bring everything together.” The actor added a story about a time when his son, Pokahu, was 3-years-old and he wanted to wear a Disney princess dress.

His Son Was A Proud Disney Princess

“My wife and I explained to him that girls wear dresses,” says Rademacher, who agreed to his son’s wish. “He wore that princess dress, high heels, tiara, [and carried] a wand [and] walked all over the property so proud[ly] because he wanted to look pretty. I don’t think a transphobic dad would buy his son a Disney princess dress. So, there you have it. I’m an open book. I’m open to discussion and debate about everything and anything and I think that we should always be open to that because that is a democracy. Everything else is not.”

When Rademacher follows up on his statement that he’ll explain his current status with General Hospital, Soap Hub will be sure to let you know. General Hospital (GH) airs weekdays on ABC. Check your local listings for airtimes. For more about what’s coming up in Port Charles, check out all the latest that’s been posted on GH spoilers, and for an in-depth look at the show’s history, click here.