LGBT leaders say sex misconduct allegation coverage ‘an advance’

NEW YORK — Among the dozens of prominent Americans entangled in sexual-misconduct cases this year are a modest number of men whose accusers are male. For some LGBT civic leaders, dismay over these cases is mixed with relief and even a trace of pride at how they were addressed.

The relief reflects a general sense that media coverage of these cases — notably those involving actor Kevin Spacey, Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine and former Seattle Mayor Ed Murray — has been mostly fair and responsible, focused on the alleged misconduct rather than on sexual orientation.

The coverage “does represent an advance,” said Darrel Cummings, chief of staff of the Los Angeles LGBT Center.

“There was a time when the news would have started off with sexual orientation, with ‘This is what we always thought about gay people,’ ” he said. “But now we don’t see the old-school bias. They cover us as if we’re human beings.”

Traces of pride have been evident in Seattle, where Murray had long established himself as an icon of Washington state’s LGBT-rights movement.

But when allegations multiplied — eventually from five men, including Murray’s own foster son — that Murray has sexually abused them when they were teens, LGBT leaders were at the forefront to demand his resignation.

Seattle’s LGBTQ Commission rejected his suggestion that the complaints were anti-gay machinations. Murray resigned in midSeptember.

In October, the Kevin Spacey case leaped into the headlines. Actor Anthony Rapp said Spacey made sexual advances on him in 1986, when he was 14 and Spacey was 26. Since then, more than 20 other men have accused Spacey of sexual misconduct or assault.

Many gay activists were furious that Spacey, in asserting he didn’t remember an encounter with Rapp, took the opportunity to come out as a gay man.

“Coming-out stories should not be used to deflect from allegations of sexual assault,” tweeted Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBT media watchdog GLAAD. “This isn’t a coming-out story about Spacey, but a story of survivorship by Anthony Rapp & those who speak out about unwanted sexual advances.”

Ellis, in a recent phone interview, said the media responded with generally responsible coverage of the case.