Actor Simu Liu—the star of the latest Marvel action movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings—is embroiled in controversy over alleged Reddit comments he made about how pedophilia is “no different from being gay,” according to LGBTQ Nation.
Years-old comments from a Reddit account called NippedintheBud, which Liu used for verified “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) sessions on the social media platform, have resurfaced. “From a biological standpoint it’s no different than being gay—a small mutation in the genome that determines our sexual preferences,” Liu said in 2015 on the sub-reddit r/WorldNews, under the username NippedintheBud. “Depending on what area of the world you were born and what time, it also may have been a perfectly acceptable thing to act on those urges.”
In 2019, NippedintheBud did an official “Ask Me Anything” session on the subreddit forum for Kim’s Convenience, saying that he is Liu and answering questions from fans.
The Advocate reported that Liu is accused of making other racist and misogynistic remarks using the account.
Liu appeared to be responding in a Twitter thread that included a 2019 tweet about staying positive and added a new one saying Twitter can be “a slanderous place,” also saying that if anyone goes back far enough, that person will find a “more immature version of me who gave in to anger and hate.”
Neither Liu nor representatives for Marvel, which is owned by Disney, have not commented on the matter yet. ‘Shang-Chi’ won the box-office title again this past weekend.