November 7, 2014
'OITNB''s Big Boo Blabs About Bible-Banging Bigot Bash
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 2 MIN.
"Orange is the New Black" star Lea DeLaria is speaking out after a video of her went viral this week that shows the out actress getting into a heated argument with an anti-gay subway preacher.
Speaking to Page Six Thursday, the actress, who plays Big Boo on the breakout Netflix series, said she was heading to a film studio in Queens to work when the hate rhetoric she heard the preacher spew forced her to lash out against him, in front of a car full of people.
"He was saying women should be subservient to men and that they should dress a certain way," DeLearia, 56, told Page Six. "He literally said that the problems in the world were because of homos. That we were all driven by our lust, that we were all sinners and we were all going to hell."
DeLaria went to Catholic school for over a decade and says she hates it when subway preachers use "fire and brimstone" in their quasi sermons.
"I really can't tolerate anyone who uses the name of Jesus to preach hatred," she said. "When he literally used the word 'homo,' I decided to get up."
DeLaria says about 20 cell phones were recording the incident and that she even got the passengers to sing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" to help draw out the preacher's speech. She adds when the man finally got off the subway, the passengers gave a "healthy round of applause."
She told the newspaper she'll interfere if she sees the same preacher working the train again.
"My guess is that he probably won't do it if he sees me," she said. "I have no problem with people talking out loud on the subway. I think that freedom of speech comes with responsibility. You should not, you cannot spew that kind of hatred out loud - especially in New York City, a multicultural and -religious city that we live in."
Page Six asked DeLaria what message she wants to send in the wake of the viral video.
"You must always face evil and take it down," she said. "The reason evil thrives in the world, the reason hatred thrives in the world, the reason bullying thrives in the world is because of complacency. As long as we continue to take it, it will continue to thrive."
