Sherlock star Amanda Abbington has deleted her Twitter account amid a backlash over her being cast in the latest season of BBC entertainment show Strictly Come Dancing.
Abbington was among the first celebrities confirmed for Strictly, but she was almost immediately accused of being a “transphobe” and a “TERF” (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) by fans of the dancing competition. Some threatened to boycott the show.
Abbington addressed the uproar in an Instagram video, which she titled: “A few thoughts on my Twitter Strictly boycott.” Abbington said the outcry resulted from a tweet she posted in March, in which she criticized a video of a drag artist performing in a “highly sexualised way” in front of children.
Speaking on Instagram, Abbington said: “I’m sorry if you feel like you would boycott Strictly for a tweet I made about a drag show.” She argued that she did not associate her comments with the trans community. “I am not a transphobic person, I am a firm supporter of the legitimate trans community. I always have been,” she explained.
The Mr Selfridge star added that the trans community has been “infiltrated” by “some people” who “want to cause damage” to further the cause. “What we need to do now more than ever is just make sure that everybody is looking after each other. It’s f*****g toxic out there. It’s horrible,” she said.
Abbington has made inflamatory comments about transgender women in the past. “You cannot have a penis and want to be referred to as a woman,” she wrote on Facebook in 2020.
She appeared to address this in her Instagram video, telling her followers that she wrote a “stupid” and “ill informed” thing, which she regretted and apologized for. “I did my research and I’m much more informed now,” she added.
Content Source: deadline.com