Gay LGBTQ Media and Press Network

Broadcaster Stephen Fry has called on athletes in the Russian Sochi Winter Olympics to find a symbol to show 'solidarity' with gay Russians.

By Newsdesk | 10th August 2013

Openly gay writer, presenter and broadcaster Stephen Fry calls upon athletes who take part in the Sochi Winter Olympics to find a symbol to show solidarity with Russian LGBTs.

During an interview with the BBC Fry said that at the end of competitors' games, they should stand up and adopt a cross armed pose to show their support and that they ‘are thinking about the gay people of Russian who are being tormented and brutalised everyday.’

In June, President Putin signed into law a bill that could see both nationals and international visitors promoting “non-traditional relationships” to anyone under 18 face hefty fines and prison.

Lord Coe and the Prime Minister David Cameron have reacted to an open letter from broadcaster Stephen Fry calling for the boycott of the Winter Olympics in Sochi 2014. In the letter Fry compare the situation in Russia to the decision to host the 1936 Olympic games in Nazi Germany and that President Putin: ‘is making scapegoats of gay people’, adding that: ‘an absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 on Sochi is simply essential’.