Dear Prime Minister, M Rogge, Lord Coe and Members of the International Olympic Committee,
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. He claimed they "polluted" the
purity and tradition of what it was to be German, that they were a
threat to the state, to the children and the future of the Reich. He
blamed them simultaneously for the mutually exclusive crimes of
Communism and for the controlling of international capital and banks. He
blamed them for ruining the culture with their liberalism and
difference. The Olympic movement at that time paid precisely no
attention to this evil and proceeded with the notorious Berlin Olympiad,
which provided a stage for a gleeful Führer and only increased his
status at home and abroad. It gave him confidence. All historians are
agreed on that. What he did with that confidence we all know.
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. Everyone knows politics interconnects with
everything for "politics" is simply the Greek for "to do with the
people".
An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 on Sochi is
simply essential. Stage them elsewhere in Utah, Lillehammer, anywhere
you like. At all costs Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the
civilised world.
He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He
cannot be allowed to get away with it. I know whereof I speak. I have
visited Russia, stood up to the political deputy who introduced the
first of these laws, in his city of St Petersburg. I looked into the
face of the man and, on camera, tried to reason with him, counter him,
make him understand what he was doing. All I saw reflected back at me
was what Hannah Arendt called, so memorably, "the banality of evil." A
stupid man, but like so many tyrants, one with an instinct of how to
exploit a disaffected people by finding scapegoats. Putin may not be
quite as oafish and stupid as Deputy Milanov but his instincts are the
same. He may claim that the "values" of Russia are not the "values" of
the West, but this is absolutely in opposition to Peter the Great's
philosophy, and against the hopes of millions of Russians, those not in
the grip of that toxic mix of shaven headed thuggery and bigoted
religion, those who are agonised by the rolling back of democracy and
the formation of a new autocracy in the motherland that has suffered so
much (and whose music, literature and drama, incidentally I love so
passionately).
I am gay. I am a Jew. My mother lost over a dozen of her family to
Hitler's anti-Semitism. Every time in Russia (and it is constantly) a
gay teenager is forced into suicide, a lesbian "correctively" raped, gay
men and women beaten to death by neo-Nazi thugs while the Russian
police stand idly by, the world is diminished and I for one, weep anew
at seeing history repeat itself.
"All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do
nothing," so wrote Edmund Burke. Are you, the men and women of the IOC
going to be those "good" who allow evil to triumph?
The Summer Olympics of 2012 were one of the most glorious moments of
my life and the life of my country. For there to be a Russian Winter
Olympics would stain the movement forever and wipe away any of that
glory. The Five Rings would finally be forever smeared, besmirched and
ruined in the eyes of the civilised world.
I am begging you to resist the pressures of pragmatism, of money, of
the oily cowardice of diplomats and to stand up resolutely and proudly
for humanity the world over, as your movement is pledged to do. Wave
your Olympic flag with pride as we gay men and women wave our Rainbow
flag with pride. Be brave enough to live up to the oaths and protocols
of your movement, which I remind you of verbatim below.
Rule four: Cooperate with the competent public or private
organisations and authorities in the endeavour to place sport at the
service of humanity and thereby to promote peace.
Rule six: Act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement.
Rule 15: Encourage and support initiatives blending sport with culture and education.
I especially appeal to you, Prime Minister, a man for whom I have the
utmost respect. As the leader of a party I have for almost all of my
life opposed and instinctively disliked, you showed a determined,
passionate and clearly honest commitment to LGBT rights and helped push
gay marriage through both houses of our parliament in the teeth of
vehement opposition from so many of your own side. For that I will
always admire you, whatever other differences may lie between us. In the
end I believe you know when a thing is wrong or right. Please act on
that instinct now.
Yours in desperate hope for humanity
Stephen Fry
