Rose McGowan has apologized for stating, “Gay men are as misogynistic as straight men,” during an appearance on Bret Easton Ellis’ Podcast.

Rose McGowan Calls Out Gay Community For Lack Of Women's Issues

McGowan was a guest on Ellis’ podcast on Oct. 6, in an episode the author decided to focus on sexism and women in film. Ellis introduced McGowan with a monologue about the theory of the ‘male gaze’ and the lack of female directors in Hollywood. While the podcast began as an interview about McGowan’s directorial debut, Dawn, a short film about gender roles, the conversation shifted when Ellis and McGowan began talking about the recent Hollywood boycott of the Beverly Hills Hotel.

“Gay men are as misogynistic as straight men, if not more so. I have an indictment of the gay community right now, I’m actually really upset with them,” Gowan told Ellis.

McGowan expanded on her “indictment,” saying she was angered with Hollywood’s boycott of the Beverly Hills Hotel. In June, Hollywood began protesting the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Dorchester Collection after the owner, the Sultan of Brunei, announced that he would be implementing certain aspects of Sharia law. Ellen DeGeneres, Elton John and Jay Leno publicly supported the boycott, mostly led by the LGBTQ community.

McGowan, however, spoke out against the protests, saying that the boycott was only hurting those employed at the hotel, not the Sultan of Brunei. McGowan hosted a “gay in” at the Beverly Hills Hotel to prove her point, and received backlash from outspoken members of the gay community, which she found very hypocritical.

“You wanna talk about sharia law? Fine, let’s go. You wanna talk about how Richard Branson said ‘no employees of mine will ever stay at the Dorchester’ and he just did a massive deal with Saudi Arabia? You wanna talk about the fact that I have heard nobody in the gay community, no gay males, standing up for women on any level,” McGowan told Ellis.

McGowan elaborated on her anger towards the gay community, saying that, as a gay activist, she was angered by the fact that the gay community didn’t seem to be standing up for women’s rights as well. “I think it’s what happens to you as a group when you are starting to get most of what you fought for? What do you do now? What I would hope they would do is extend a hand to women,” said McGowan.

“Women, by-and-large, have very much helped the gay community get to where they are today… And I have seen not a single peep from these people, who supposedly represent lesbians as well… I’ve seen none of them go against – three months ago the equal pay act was shut down by Republicans in the Senate – I have seen nobody, not a single man, not you, not anybody, mention that.”

McGowan continued, adding that she believed that extending a helping hand to women’s rights could be a “new mission” for LGBTQ activists.

“I see no help, and I see no paying forward, and I have a huge problem with that. I have a huge problem with a community that understands what it’s like to be looked down on, that understands what it’s like to be hurt just for existing. And I would ask them to do something to help others. That can be a new mission,” McGowan said.

Weeks after the podcast was posted to the Internet, articles began popping up about McGowan with headlines such as, “Gays are ‘more misogynistic’ than straight men.”

The Advocate then picked up the story, and McGowan began receiving backlash from fans on Twitter, who were specifically upset with her statement that the current gay community appeared to have “fought for the right to stand on top of a float wearing an orange speedo and take Molly.”

Rose McGowan Apologizes For Calling Gay Men "Misogynistic"

McGowan responded to the criticism with an op-ed for The Advocate and a series of Tweets, in which she apologized for her generalizations about gay men, writing, “I was pissed off when I said that, obvs a gross over generalization. But my point stands.”