'Birth Of A Nation' Actress Gabrielle Union Addresses Nate Parker's Rape Allegations

Actress Gabrielle Union says the rape debate swirling around her “Birth of a Nation” director Nate Parker left her in a state of “stomach-churning confusion.”

A rape survivor herself, Union says she signed on to portray a sexually assaulted slave in Parker’s Nat Turner biopic without knowing the details of his 2001 acquittal on charges he raped a woman in his apartment while a wrestler at Penn State University.

After reading 700 pages of trial transcripts, the actress said she still doesn’t know exactly what happened that night nearly two decades ago — but she found the testimony troubling.

“By his own admission he did not have verbal affirmation,” Union said of Parker in a powerful op-ed piece written for the Los Angeles Times.

“Even if she never said ‘no,’ silence certainly does not equal ‘yes,’” Union said of the 18-year-old woman who accused Parker and his friend Jean McGianni Celestin of raping her while she was intoxicated and fading in and out of consciousness.

“Although it’s often difficult to read and understand body language, the fact that some individuals interpret the absence of a ‘no’ as a ‘yes’ is problematic at least, criminal at worst,” she wrote. “That’s why education on this issue is so vital.”

Union, 43, said she was raped at gunpoint in the back of a Payless shoe store 24 years ago.

She defended “Birth of a Nation” as a “groundbreaking” film and said she hoped her character would give voice to the powerless.

Union also said she and her NBA star husband Dwyane Wade make a point of speaking to their sons about affirmative consent.

Back when Turner and Celestin were charged, they claimed the sexual contact with their 18-year-old accuser was consensual.

Parker was acquitted following testimony the woman engaged in oral sex with him the day before.

Celestin, who shares a story credit on “Birth of a Nation,” initially was convicted but got the verdict overturned on appeal when the victim declined to testify again.

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