Eddie Izzard, Stephen Fry and Stonewall slam Tory support of homophobes
October 6th, 2009
Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill has cancelled his appearance as star speaker at tonight’s Conservative Party event in Manchester’s gay village in protest at the presence of extremist homophobic MEPs at the Conservative conference.
Representatives of the Polish Law and Justice Party have been welcomed at the Conservative Party conference, held today in Manchester.
The Polish Law and Justice Party believes that gay people are perverts and that homosexuality is a pathology responsible for the downfall of civilisation.
An open letter to the Conservatives condeming the decision to support The Polish Law and Justice Party has been signed by over 20 celebrities, including Eddie Izzard, Stephen Fry, Patrick Stewart, Jo Brand and Tony Robinson.
In an interview on Channel 4 news, Stephen Fry said he believed that the Conservatives had taken a step back by aligning themselves with the homophobic Polish party.
“It upset me to see the Tories for strategic reasons sitting with an unpleasantly homophobic nationalistic party in Poland and sharing their whip in Europe,” said Fry.
“While it may not seem important as to whom they sit with, to me it just struck a very sour note. I just thought it would be very good during the conference to give David Cameron and the Tories an opportunity to disassociate themselves from that kind of 20th century, or frankly 19th century, rhetoric that the Polish Law and Justice party has been responsible for - the really unpleasant and nasty hate-filled speeches that have been made by this party.
“It seems extraordinary that the modern Tory party, in which I fully believe in terms of its acceptance of gay people, should sudddenly have changed its tune or at least allow itself to associate itself with these people.”
Fry said he was concerned that the economic problems in Europe would lead to 1930s-style social problems.
“This is a problem that is not going to get smaller because, as we start to pay for the financial disaster of the last year, a kind of great pimple of nationalism, homophobia and racism is going to erupt around Europe because there is going to be trouble with unemployment,” said Fry.
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