Sir Ian McKellen has joined forces with the noted chemist Sir Harry
Kroto to co-write a protest letter to the Russian Government over its treatment
of LGBTIs which has been co-signed by 27 Nobel prize winners.
The letter was published
in full in the UK’s The Independent newspaper earlier today.
The letter is addressed to President Vladimir Putin and the Russian
people and prominent Nobel laureates to sign it include the novelist JM
Coetzee, geneticist Sir Paul Nurse.
According to McKellen and Kroto the letter was written to show
that, ‘many senior members of the international scientific community show
solidarity with politicians, artists, sports people and many others who have
already expressed their abhorrence for the Russian Government's actions against
its gay citizens.’
‘Protest is never easy but we hope that by expressing opposition to
the new legislation it might be possible to encourage the Russian state to
embrace the 21st century humanitarian, political and inclusive democratic
principles which Mikhail Gorbachev worked so hard to achieve.’
In the letter Kroto says he has enjoyed ‘the tremendous friendship
of Russian scientists’ during his career and would honor an invitation to
return in 2014 but says that will be the last time he visits Russia unless the
country’s law
banning so-called ‘homosexual propaganda to minors’ is repealed.
McKellen writes in the letter about how he has been warned by the
UK Foreign Office against speaking openly about his sexuality if he travels to
Russia and that as a result he has had to decline invitations to attend Russian
film festivals.
McKellen and Kroto have been friends since childhood.
Let's hope more prominent people do the same!
ReplyDeletemore will
DeleteI think that Sir Ian McKellen is an excelled and fabulous actor, but now I see him as a myth.
ReplyDeleteHe is a wonderful person from whom many should learn, with this gesture has proven his great value.
I have so much respect for him
Delete