General Hospital drops Ingo Rademacher

Ingo Rademacher has been discharged for good from General Hospital.

The Australian actor, who plays Jasper "Jax" Jacks on the ABC daytime drama, declined to comply with the production's recently instituted vaccine mandate and will appear in his last episode on Nov. 22, EW has learned.

Rademacher has been a vocal critic of COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and mandates. The actor is also under fire for misgendering a transgender federal official on social media.

Howard Wise/jpistudios.com Steve Burton, Ingo Rademacher, and Laura Wright on 'General Hospital'

On Sunday, GH star Nancy Lee Grahn tweeted that Rademacher was "mercifully no longer a part of the #gh cast." She was responding to her costar Cassandra James, who is transgender and had tweeted, "I am aware of a transphobic post shared by a fellow General Hospital actor. Shame on you. You have some serious unlearning and education to do. I feel deeply disappointed that such a public display of ignorance could come from our GH family."

Earlier Sunday, Rademacher shared a tweet on his Instagram story from conservative podcast host Allie Beth Stuckey that misgendered Dr. Rachel Levine, the nation's assistant secretary for health. Levine made history earlier this year as the first openly transgender federal official confirmed by the Senate.

Stuckey's tweet mocked the idea that Levine could be considered an "empowering woman" while Winsome Sears, who is Black and a Republican and was recently elected lieutenant governor of Virginia. In addition to sharing the tweet, Rademacher added his own comment in his IG story: "Always search for the truth and be open to the fact it might come from a source you might not always agree with."

After news of his comments went viral, Rademacher posted an Instagram video Monday saying, "The left always likes to run with 'Ingo Rademacher is transphobic' instead of pointing out the fact that it was a comparison. While it's not okay to call a Black woman a white [supremacist], I don't either that it's okay to call a transgender an empowered woman. Because where does that leave women? Think about that for a second. Where does that leave women? Women have fought so hard to get on a level playing field with men. They weren't allowed to do anything back in the day. They were nothing. So I just I don't agree with that. But I do apologize for not crossing out 'dude' and putting 'transgender.' I apologize for that. Because me personally, I wouldn't have written it that way. That was somebody else's post. Again, that's not an excuse. I should have just crossed it out."

He also apologized to James, who in 2018 became the first transgender actress on daytime TV. "I think you're an absolute talent and you're very beautiful as well," Rademacher said. "I don't think a transphobic man would say that. I think you are absolutely gorgeous."

In his Instagram post, the actor declined to comment on his status with GH, saying he was "running around town" and didn't have time.

Related content:

• Soap vet Cameron Mathison is joining General Hospital

• 28 celebrities who got their start on soap operas

• General Hospital has a fancy new pool now