7 August 2013updated 17 Jan 2024 7:24am

Stephen Fry: Ban the Winter Olympics over Russia’s anti-gay laws

Putin "is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it," writes Fry.

By Alex Hern

Stephen Fry has written an open letter to the International Olympic Committee and the Prime Minister, asking for an “absolute ban” on the Russian Winter Olympics over the swell of homophobia in the nation, and comparing them to the 1936 Berlin games held by the Nazis. Fry’s site is sporadically crashing at the moment due to the traffic, so here’s an excerpt:

I write in the earnest hope that all those with a love of sport and the Olympic spirit will consider the stain on the Five Rings that occurred when the 1936 Berlin Olympics proceeded under the exultant aegis of a tyrant who had passed into law, two years earlier, an act which singled out for special persecution a minority whose only crime was the accident of their birth. In his case he banned Jews from academic tenure or public office, he made sure that the police turned a blind eye to any beatings, thefts or humiliations afflicted on them, he burned and banned books written by them.

Putin is eerily repeating this insane crime, only this time against LGBT Russians. Beatings, murders and humiliations are ignored by the police. Any defence or sane discussion of homosexuality is against the law. Any statement, for example, that Tchaikovsky was gay and that his art and life reflects this sexuality and are an inspiration to other gay artists would be punishable by imprisonment. It is simply not enough to say that gay Olympians may or may not be safe in their village. The IOC absolutely must take a firm stance on behalf of the shared humanity it is supposed to represent against the barbaric, fascist law that Putin has pushed through the Duma. Let us not forget that Olympic events used not only to be athletic, they used to include cultural competitions. Let us realise that in fact, sport is cultural. It does not exist in a bubble outside society or politics. The idea that sport and politics don’t connect is worse than disingenuous, worse than stupid. It is wickedly, wilfully wrong…

An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 on Sochi is simply essential. Stage them elsewhere in Utah, Lillyhammer, anywhere you like. At all costs Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the civilised world.

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He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it.