I commute to work on foot and bike and get a lot of sun exposure. This might sound silly but I am scared of the looks or even bullying (?) I’ll get if I wear these. Anyone else using these in a western country and what are your experiences?
I posted this about Ian McKellen and some astroturfing accounts immediately came trying to gaslight me and paint me as homophobic. I asked "Has Mckellen ever defended the underage members of LGBTQ community abused my people like Gary Goddard and Bryan Singer?
Then I asked them to say adults sleeping wiith children and drugging the, is wrong.
if it had been me after the apt pupil , I would have kept distance with Bryan Singer, and Gary Goddard.
This is a version of the post I shared in this subreddit a month ago.
There's all kind of gaslighting to defend both Bryan Singer and Ian Mckellen.
https://www.reddit.com/r/behindthebastards/s/KPQgvnopnO
But this one denying abuse survivors of the LGBTQ community (or still defining themselves) abused by millionaires who give them Molly , alcohol (like in the picture, the to my guy is 18 , not legal to drink yet) takes the cake. Taking the side of the abuser. Ignoring this is a problem for LGBTQ children who are never incapable to give their consent.
I mean doing this would put him in the position of implicitly endorsing the idea that child sexual abuse is a significant problem in the LGBTQ community in the first place. Considering that wild and totally unfounded accusations of things like that have led directly to the persecution and oppression of that community, you can see why forcing him to answer for it is wildly unfair and insulting.
This is what you do when you require members of a marginalized community to answer for (imagined) “crimes” supposedly committed by their community. You force them to speak for their entire community, and while in that position as spokesman for the community, you ask them to implicitly acknowledge and endorse harmful stereotypes. It’s an extremely unfair to do to him as an individual and to the community as a whole.
He is also an old, white, posh british man. We know for a fact that the schools those types send their kids to are basically trauma and abuse factories. We know for a fact that generations of that exact demographic has wreaked violence and horror the world over. Why don’t you ask him to answer for the old, white, posh British man demographic? After all, the accusations against them are far more substantiated. Why does he instead have to answer for the imagined crimes of the LGBTQ community??
Yes, CSA is a huge problem for the LGBTQ community, specially the children, many CSA survivors can't denounce because they aren't believed and they face hurtful stereotypes innocent adults are more prone to be distrusted due to bias too, but it's the children that are more important.
Ian McKellen is seen as a protector of the LGBTQ community but until he disavows his friends he will rightfully so raise some eyebrows. It's time he says it: Adults with underage actors is wrong. Children aren't equipped to give consent and the alcohol in the picture of Singer, Mckellen and Goddard is an aberration and a use of powerGary Goddard was convicted, Bryan Singer flew the country and it's time Mckellen stops his association with people who hurt the LGBTQ community specially LGBTQ children.
When Brad Renfro died of an overdose in 2008 at just 25, Ian McKellen published a short tribute on his website the very next day. He opened it by recalling the first time he saw Renfro:
>"I first caught sight of Brad Renfro when he was kicking a football around with Bryan Singer on the half-built set of Apt Pupil in Hollywood."
At the time, that probably read like a fond memory of a young costar. But reading it today, knowing the context around Apt Pupil and what followed, that opening feels deeply unsettling.
During production in 1997, the parents of a 14-year-old extra sued over minors being compelled to appear nude in a shower sequence, leading to a criminal investigation (though no charges were ultimately filed). Decades later, in 2019, Victor Valdovinos alleged that Singer sexually assaulted him on that same set when he was 13.
I'm not suggesting McKellen witnessed abuse or knew what Singer was doing at the time. But he was the adult star on a set plagued by allegations involving underage boys. Yet when Renfro died, McKellen’s instinct was to publicly anchor his memory of the boy directly to Singer.
What makes it harder to swallow is McKellen didn't walk away from Singer after 1997, he continued working with him for years across the X-Men franchise and kept a close relationship to him, Gary Goddard and other questionable company. The boy in the pic isn't old enough to drink, and the allegations against Bryan Singer and his partners at DEN company included alcohol and drugs used to r..p.e young boys.
Bryan Singer, Ian Mckellen and Gary Goddard
In 2019, when allegations against Singer resurfaced, McKellen gave an interview on the Queer as F podcast where he made extraordinarily ill-judged comments about Singer and Kevin Spacey, as reported by The Advocate. He suggested that being in the closet contributed to their behavior and added:
>"Well frankly, I’m waiting for someone to accuse me of something, and me wondering whether they’re not telling the truth..."
Although McKellen subsequently apologized and stated he deeply regretted the remarks on Singer and Spacey ( Vanity Fair), the pattern is hard to ignore. When forced to confront allegations against his colleague, his default reaction was to rationalize the behavior rather than center the young people involved.
Notice also he didn't apologize for the "waiting for someone to accuse me of something." He only apologized for linking abuse to being in the closet.
I’m not trying to throw baseless accusations at McKellen. But the public record shows he maintained a close working relationship with Singer long after the Apt Pupil controversy, and years later, made excuses for him. That's the part that feels impossible to square with his affectionate words for Renfro.
This could be a great series of episodes on Bryan Singer, Brian Peck and their close friends.
The Hollywood Reporter just published an article revealing the man who sexually abused then 40 year old Mark Curry.
„The former child actress Raquel Lee has sued The Walt Disney Co. for negligence, alleging an unidentified “middle-aged, male employee who was involved in the filming of” the 2001 Disney Channel original movie The Poof Point sexually abused and assaulted her. At the time, she was 14 years old.
The Hollywood Reporter has separately learned that Lee reached a confidential settlement agreement with actor Mark Curry in 2015. He played her father in The Poof Point. Gloria Allred, known for representing accusers against prominent individuals in sexual misconduct claims, represented Lee in the private resolution.“
He can rot in hell.
In 1997, while Apt Pupil was being filmed, the parents of a 14-year-old extra sued over minors allegedly being compelled to appear nude in the shower sequence. Other teenage boys subsequently supported the allegations. The DA investigated but did not bring criminal charges.
Bryan Singer, Ian McKellen and Brad Renfro
I recently came across Ian McKellen's "tribute" to Brad Renfro star of Apt Pupil, written on January 16, 2008, the day after Renfro died. After looking into the history surrounding Apt Pupil, I find the tribute increasingly difficult to read because of the context he chose to leave out.
Brad Renfro died on January 15, 2008, at 25, from an accidental heroin overdose. McKellen's tribute was published the following day.
McKellen begins his tribute by saying:
>«"I first caught sight of Brad Renfro when he was kicking a football around with Bryan Singer on the half-built set of Apt Pupil in Hollywood."»
He then remembers Brad as "a kid having fun" and says that this is how he would "always remember him."
That opening really bothers me now because Apt Pupil wasn't simply a happy Hollywood memory.
During production in 1997, allegations were made concerning underage extras and nudity during a shower scene. There were legal proceedings surrounding those allegations. Much later, in 2019, Victor Valdovinos alleged that Bryan Singer sexually assaulted him when he was 13 on the Apt Pupil set. Singer denied the allegations.
I'm not claiming that McKellen knew that Singer was abusing anyone, or that he personally witnessed a sexual assault.
But McKellen was an adult star working on that production with a 14-year-old Brad Renfro. And his own writings about Apt Pupil describe his relationship with Brad in very affectionate terms. So it is fair to ask what McKellen knew about the allegations surrounding the production and whether he ever reported or raised concerns about them**. I have not found evidence that he reported Singer or the allegations to authorities**.
What makes the 2008 tribute especially uncomfortable is that McKellen's chosen memory of Brad begins with Bryan Singer. He doesn't simply say, "I remember Brad as a wonderful young actor." He specifically places the first memory of Brad alongside Singer on the Apt Pupil set.
And there is another part of the story that makes this much more complicated.
McKellen did not simply have a professional association with Singer that ended after Apt Pupil. He subsequently worked with Singer on several X-Men films, including X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016. In other words, McKellen continued his professional relationship with Singer for years after Brad's death.
Then in 2019, when allegations against Singer were again receiving major public attention, McKellen made extraordinarily ill-judged comments about Singer and Kevin Spacey. He suggested that their being closeted had contributed to their problems and that, had they been open about their sexuality, they would not have "started abusing people in the way they're being accused." McKellen subsequently apologized and said he deeply regretted the remarks.
That 2019 statement is particularly relevant to how I read the 2008 tribute today. It doesn't prove that McKellen knew anything about abuse in 1997. But it does demonstrate that, even decades later, his instinct when discussing allegations against Singer could be to offer an explanation that contextualized or rationalized the alleged abuser's behavior rather than centering the alleged victims.
And that's why I find the tribute tone-deaf.
It's not that McKellen wasn't allowed to have happy memories of Brad. Of course he was. It's not even that his affection for Brad must have been fake.
It's the combination of things that bothers me:
• Brad was a child actor when McKellen met him.
• The production around which they met had allegations involving underage boys.
• McKellen's tribute was written immediately after Brad's death and nostalgically foregrounded the Apt Pupil set and Bryan Singer.
• McKellen continued working with Singer for years after Brad's death.
• And in 2019, McKellen made comments about Singer's alleged abuse that he later acknowledged were wrong and apologized for.
So I don't think the fairest criticism is "McKellen couldn't possibly have loved Brad because he remained friends with Singer." People can have contradictory relationships and genuinely mourn someone while making terrible judgments about other people.
The more troubling question, to me, is:
How can someone write such an intimate, affectionate remembrance of a young actor while continuing to maintain such a close professional relationship with the adult director at the center of serious allegations involving minors from that same period—and, years later, make comments that appeared to rationalize that director's alleged behavior?
That's the contradiction I can't get past.
And I think it is worth separating two questions:
What McKellen knew in 1997 is something we may never be able to establish.
What McKellen chose to do with his relationship with Singer after the allegations became public is much easier to document.
That's why I think the latter is the more legitimate subject of criticism.
Let's never forget how Ian Mckellen expressed himself.
>Well frankly, I’m waiting for someone to accuse me of something, and me wondering whether they’re not telling the truth and me having forgotten (pointing to his head) you know*-Ian Mckellen at the Queer as F podcast*.
I’ve struggled with fungal acne for a very long time. I’ve tried working with Derms who gave me prescriptions (fluconozale, ketoconazole, etc), I’ve spent $1,000s on “acne-clearing” body washes and salyzcidic acid cleansers and all the things, I’ve bought all the products and tried all the routines… it would get better then it would get worse but I never had any long-term improvement or significant break throughs.
Fast forward to this year, I got married in April and wanted nothing more than to have clear skin on my wedding day. I started working with an esthetician and getting facials a few months before the wedding to try and help prep my skin. I was telling her my issues and she suggested working with a dietician because my skin issues were probably related to my gut health. I had never explored that route and was determined to have clear skin for my wedding so I found a dietician in my area and started working with her.
WHEN I TELL YOU she listened to my story and all my symptoms and struggles and knew almost immediately what was causing my acne I almost cried. She put on a very strict elimination diet that avoided foods that cause inflation and were feeding the bad bacteria in my gut and making my skin flare up. The diet was TOUGH (no alcohol, no caffeine, no sugar, no gluten, no starches, no wheat/grains) but again, I had 3 months until my wedding and I was extremely determined so I followed it, cut all of that out of my diet, and my skin literally started clearing 2 weeks later. I stayed mostly on that diet for 3 months (with a few exceptions) and my skin looked AMAZING at my wedding and has stayed pretty clear ever since!!!
I’m sharing this in case anyone else out there has explored the gut health route for skin issues. I can’t believe it took me this long to discover it but I am SO thankful and grateful!
