Highlights
- Matthew Lillard cited the Cornell case on a podcast, comparing alleged campus rapists to the number of trans athletes.
- A former Cornell student is suing the school and seven Chi Phi members; the DA has reopened the 2024 assault case.
- Lillard, a parent of a non-binary, queer child, urged people to stop canceling others and to lead with love instead.
Matthew Lillard is using his platform to speak to two issues at once: the Cornell University sexual assault case and the political fight over trans kids.
On the I’ve Never Said This Before podcast, the host asked Lillard to answer the show’s titular question. Tommy DiDario hosts the show. After a pause, he said his first instinct was to talk about queer and trans kids.
Then he turned to Cornell.
He said he had recently reposted a comparison claiming there are “more rapists from that university than there are trans athletes in the world” competing in other sports. He called the point relevant.
He also took aim at public shaming, saying “this idea of people cancelling other people is just horrific.”
Describing himself as someone who has felt like an outsider his whole life, he landed on a simple message: “I just feel like most people should lead with love.”
The case behind his remarks is serious. A former Cornell student, identified as Jane Doe, filed a 101-page lawsuit in September against the university, Chi Phi fraternity organizations, and several students over an alleged October 2024 assault.
Her suit says she was pressured into taking ketamine, marijuana, and alcohol until she could not consent. She alleges she was raped for hours.
A university investigation ended with two of the seven accused men expelled. Others received suspensions, workshops, and essays.
Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten has since reopened the case. Cornell said it supports giving the woman’s account a chance “to be heard by a criminal grand jury.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul has called for an independent investigation into how the school handled the allegations.
Lillard joins Florence Pugh, Mariska Hargitay and Hudson Williams, who all spoke out after the case resurfaced. Williams has called for arrests.
For Lillard, the issue is personal. He is the parent of a non-binary, queer child.
“For me, I have queer kids,” he told fans at a Scream 30th anniversary screening in Austin last month.
At that event, he described speaking out as an obligation. “If I’m not standing up for queer kids or kids in the trans community,” he began, before asking what else he would be doing.
He has also said he regrets returning for Scream 7 after Melissa Barrera was fired.
The “lead with love” line is not new for him. At a Scream screening in Los Angeles last October, he told the crowd, “In this time, in this city, we need to lead with love.”
The podcast was candid in other ways, too. Asked whether he feels valued by Hollywood, Lillard answered, “No. Not really.”
His current role connects to the same themes. Lillard plays a school principal in Carrie, Mike Flanagan’s Prime Video series about a teenager tormented at school.
He told Gayety that raising queer kids, and growing up “feeling like I was never cool or never part of that it club,” shapes how he sees it.
His hope for queer viewers is direct. He believes they will watch and feel seen.
