“General Hospital” star Ingo Rademacher has apologised to his transgender co-star for not crossing out the word “dude” when he re-posted a tweet from a conservative commentator in which the word was used in reference to Rachel Levine, the US assistant secretary for health.

Rademacher, who may have already left the soap, responds in a new Instagram video to a report in Deadline today that two of his General Hospital co-stars, including trans actor Cassandra James, had issued strong condemnations of Rademacher’s Instagram post over the weekend that copied a tweet in which a conservative podcaster called Levine a “dude.”

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The initial tweet from podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey criticised the idea that Levine could be deemed an “empowering woman” while Winsome Sears, Virginia’s newly elected Republican lieutenant governor, who is Black, could be referred to as a “white supremacist.”

Clarifying his actions, Rademacher said he retweeted the image to point out the “hypocrisy of the Left Wing media,” but that he should have crossed out the word “dude” from the original post, adding, “I don’t think it’s okay to call a transgender an empowered woman because where does that leave women?”

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In a direct apology to GH co-star James, Rademacher said, “Cassandra, I apologize to you sincerely. I think you’re an absolute talent and you’re very beautiful as well. I don’t think a transphobic man would say that. I think you’re absolutely gorgeous, I really do,” according to Deadline reports.

Later in the video, Rademacher recounts how he and his wife allowed theirson to wear a Disney Princess dress when he was three “because he wanted to look pretty. I don’t think a transphobic dad would buy his son a Disney princess dress.”

As for his current job status with General Hospital, Rademacher says he will comment on that shortly.