Ingo Rademacher had appeared on General Hospital since 1996, but he was shown the door after sharing an "offensive" meme.
On Sunday, Ingo Rademacher - who's been appearing as a regular on General Hospital for 25 seasons - generated some controversy with a post shared on his Instagram Stories. It was of a photo including transgender four-star admiral Rachel Levine alongside Winsome Sears, who was recently elected Lieutenant Governor in Virginia, making her the first Black woman to hold the position. The caption read, "Hello, and welcome to ClownTown, where the dude on the left is an empowering woman, and the woman on the right is a white supremacist."
The backlash was swift, with some of it coming from within the General Hospital cast. Cassandra James, a transgender actress who appears on the show, wrote in a Twitter post, "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."
She added in another tweet, "Misgendering trans folks is violence and if you come for one of us, you come for all of us. The cis world doesn't get to decide which of us is valuable. I am so proud of the fans for always holding us to a high standard, for calling out transphobia and violence."
It's now been revealed that Rademacher was fired from his job working on General Hospital. Responding to James, fellow cast member Nancy Lee Grahn said, "The fellow actor, Ingo Rademacher, is mercifully no longer a part of the #gh cast. Transphobia & misgendering are disgusting & should be unacceptable in any industry, including soaps/acting. I stand with my costar, Cassandra James, & the trans community."
Now, Rademacher himself has also responded to the situation. He posted a new video to Instagram stating he wanted to address the news itself before it gets "out of control." The actor insists that he's not transphobic, despite what people are saying about him online, and says he was just sharing a "comparison." He admits that it's "not okay" to call a Black woman a white supremacist, but also notes that it's also not okay to "call a transgender an empowered woman, because where does that leave women?"
The actor also says he was just trying to call out the "hypocrisy of the left-wing media," but apologizes for not replacing the word "dude" with "transgender," claiming he wouldn't personally refer to a transgender woman that way. Rademacher said he would address his apparent firing from General Hospital at a later time, but he does take a moment to offer an apology to Cassandra James. He also shared a story about buying his son a Disney princess dress when the boy was three years old to emphasize that he's not transphobic.
"Cassandra, I apologize to you as well, sincerely. I think you're an absolute talent, and 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. So, again, I apologize, I'm sorry. But you and I are going to disagree on a few things, and I'm okay with that. What I have a problem with is not having an open discussion and open debate about things, and the left just shuts everything down. And I have a real problem with that, because I don't like bullies."Rademacher's final episode on General Hospital will air on Nov. 22. It's not yet clear how his character will be written out of the series or if his absence will even be addressed. Just don't count on seeing the actor make a return to the show anytime soon.
Bad, bad boy !!