During a recent performance of Armie Hammer’s new play, Straight White Men, a transphobic audience member heckled gender non-conforming trans activist Kate Bornstein.
The Call Me By Your Name actor currently stars as a successful novelist in the play, which is written by Young Jean Lee. It boasts the honour of being Broadway’s first production of a play by an Asian-American woman.
The transphobic heckler shouted during the opening of the show when Bornstein appeared with Ty Defoe, who announced, “Good evening, ladies, gentlemen, and the rest of us.”
She and her husband also reportedly booed when Bornstein came onstage.
Hammer – who has been an avid supporter of LGBTQ rights in the past – tweeted his disgust and told her to “never come back”.
“To the woman in our audience who felt it was appropriate to yell, “You’re not welcome here!” at Kate Bornstein, our beloved friend, co-worker, and now family member….. feel free never to come back.”
To the woman in our audience who felt it was appropriate to yell, “You’re not welcome here!” at Kate Bornstein, our beloved friend, co-worker, and now family member….. feel free never to come back.
— Armie Hammer (@armiehammer) August 9, 2018
Josh Charles – who appears alongside Hammer in the play – chimed in with: “And also feel free to go fuck yourself lady.”
Bornstein shared her own experience of the incident on her Facebook account.
“I’m deeply touched by the outpouring of love and support in response to an attempted shaming of me,” she wrote.
“It’s true what people are saying: a woman, in response to my opening line of the show, ’Good evening, ladies, gentlemen, and the rest of us,’ called out from the audience, ’You’re not welcome here.’ She could not have been more wrong.
“The cast, crew, and company of Straight White Men have been warm, welcoming, and inclusive of me and the other trans actors in the show, Ty Defoe and T.L. Thompson. The production company, Second Stage Theater, have only expressed delight in welcoming us aboard.
“And the staff of the Helen Hayes Theater could not be more welcoming—we all of us give and receive nightly hugs. So, I don’t know who she thought she was talking about when she claimed that I’m not welcome. I was not shamed by her. I was puzzled.
“What could have caused this woman’s outburst?”
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