Actor Alec Baldwin has apologised for a series of tweets that could be interpreted to be homophobic.
Baldwin wrote a letter to the New York City-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights group GLAAD, insisting that his tweets had nothing to do with "issues of anyone's sexual orientation".
The apology posts came after a newspaper reporter claimed that Baldwin's wife Hilaria was tweeting at the funeral of Sopranos star James Gandolfini.
The '30 rock' actor, who has since deleted his Twitter account, called the reporter a "toxic little queen".
The apology, posted on GLAAD's website, stated, "The idea of me calling this guy a 'queen' and that being something that people thought is homophobic. A queen to me has a different meaning. It's somebody who's just above.
"It doesn't have any necessarily sexual connotations. To me a queen, I know women that act queeny, I know men that are straight that act queeny, and I know gay men that act queeny. It doesn't have to be a definite sexual connotation, or a homophobic connotation. To me those are people who think the rules don't apply to them."
GLAAD spokesman Rich Ferraro said that Baldwin's language was improper and his tweets did not reflect his "history of actively supporting LGBT equality".
