Soap star Ingo Rademacher, long known for playing the dashing Jasper ‘Jax’ Jacks on General Hospital (on & off for the past 26 years) has apparently left the daytime soap. His departure follows a controversial post that Rademacher shared on social media which featured side-by-side images of Dr. Rachel Levine, the United States’ first transgender four-star officer, and Winsome Sears, who was last week elected Virginia’s first Black woman Lieutenant Governor. “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,” Stuckey wrote in the tweet, which was then shared by Rademacher. “Always search for the truth and be open to the fact it might come from a source you might not always agree with,” Rademacher wrote in an Instagram Story right before he shared Stuckey’s tweet (full snapshots of the tweets are captured by Yahoo here).
Several of Rademacher’s General Hospital co-stars immediately spoke about strongly about his departure. “I am aware of a transphobic post shared by a fellow ‘General Hospital’ actor,” tweeted Cassandra James, who plays the landmark role of Dr. Terry Randolph. “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.“ James went on to say “Misgendering trans folks is violence and if you come for one of us, you come for all of us,” James continued. “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.”
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.
— Cassandra James (@cassandrajames_) November 8, 2021
Nancy Lee Grahn (who portrays Alexis Davis, a close friend of Rademacher’s character on the show) tweeted, “The fellow actor, #IngoRademacher, 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 @cassandrajames_ & the trans community.”
This is not the first time Rademacher’s extreme views resulted in controversy. After publicly coming out against vaccine mandates (which caused dissension with some of his General Hospital castmates) he released a video calling the #FireIngo advocates “bigots” and indicating that in his work as a Los Angeles County lifeguard, “he loves contributing and saving lives while he’s at the beach”. He then went on to speak at length about his views on both the vaccine and immunity. Ironically, as recently as April of this year, Rademacher was touting his advocacy and support for the LGBTQ community, specially in a post in support of GLSEN, where he spoke extensively about speaking with his children about the LGBTQ community & that “being LGBTQ is not a choice, it’s a feeling that a person is born with.”
A short time ago, Rademacher shared a video stating that he does not think it is okay to call a transgender woman an “empowered woman” because in his words, “where does that leave women”? He stated that he would not refer to a transgender person as a “dude” and formally apologized to co-star Cassandra James calling her “an absolute talent” and “very beautiful”. As for his General Hospital status he said he “will comment on that later” and will “get back in touch with everybody on what’s happening”.
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He is an asshole people forgive because he is handsome.
He is off the show because he didn’t get vaccinated before the cutoff. Not for the comment
This is true. He filmed his last show before his awful tweets and knew he was departing the show since September.