West Hollywood City Council candidate Tom Demille is defending Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, with Demille saying he too had once appeared in blackface.
Demille, an actor who was once in a relationship with former Congressman Barney Frank, sent local news website Wehoville a photo of himself in blackface, accompanied by a text message.
"Pic of me in black face in movie 'Panther', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panther_(film) Mario van Peebles' film where he painted a SAG [Screen Actors Guild] member rather than hire a black artist like himself," Demille said in the message. "Let's all take the morale [sic] high ground as our Democratic leaders in our country are trying to lynch Virginia Gov. Rush to judgement. Time to rush to each other's side and love one another no matter how many old pictures and old behavior that America has. We always learn from our mistakes."
There have been many calls for Northam, a Democrat, to resign after a right-wing website Friday unearthed a photo from his 1984 medical school yearbook that showed one man in blackface standing by another in a Ku Klux Klan robe. The picture was on a page devoted to photos of Northam.
Northam at first said he was indeed in the photo and apologized for it, although he did not say which of the two men he was. Then Saturday he said he was not in the photo but added that he donned blackface the same year to costume himself as Michael Jackson in a contest. He has acknowledged that blackface is wrong and hurtful but has resisted resigning.
Demille is best known for multiple appearances on the 1990s program Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and for his three-year relationship with Frank. He is in his fifth race for City Council; there are 11 candidates for three seats, and the election will be March 5, WeHoVille reports. He frequently attends council meetings.
The Van Peebles film Panther, about the origins of the Black Panther Party, was released in 1995. Demille is not listed in the Internet Movie Database credits for the film, but background actors, also known as extras, often are not. Van Peebles so far has not commented on the matter.
The timing of Demille's comments is particularly bad, considering West Hollywood officials are under pressure to address Ed Buck -- a wealthy white political donor active in WeHo politics and a frequent contributor to local elected officials -- who had two black men die mysteriously in his home. Several young African-American men have said Buck has a fetish for picking up black men and injecting them with drugs.
