December 21 2024, 08:15 Stephen Fry is facing backlash for revoking support of LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall and describing its support of trans rights as “nonsensical”, with many former fans expressing “sadness” and “disappointment” at his words.
The 67-year-old author and actor – who has previously refused to condemn JK Rowling’s anti-trans views – made the comments on the Triggernometry podcast, a “free speech YouTube show.”
During the interview, Fry was challenged over his support of Stonewall by host Konstantin Kisin, who read out a letter from ex-Stonewall employee turned critic Levi Pay and asked him how he could support the LGBTQ+ charity “in all conscience.”
“Do I? I am not sure I do support them?,” Fry responded.
He said previously supported the charity’s efforts to equalise the age of consent and legalise same-sex marriage but has “no interest in supporting this current wave of nonsensical [policies].”
Fry went on to further disavow Stonewall, describing the organisation as “shameful and sad” and “stuck in a terrible, terrible quagmire.”
Stonewall ‘has got stuck in a terrible quagmire,' Stephen Fry tells Triggernometry.
— Levi Pay (@soppystern) December 18, 2024
‘I have no interest or support of this current wave of nonsensical… It’s shameful and sad.’
Great to hear my question asked in the subscribers-only section of @Triggerpod (clipped here). Fry’s… pic.twitter.com/qBBNgZYwAe
Founded in 1989 by activists including Ian McKellen, Lisa Power, and Michael Cashman to campaign against Section 28, and named after the Stonewall Riots in New York City in 1969, Stonewall is an LGBTQ+ charity that has advocated for various milestones in queer rights, including repealing Section 28, ending the ban on LGBTQ+ people in the armed forces and marriage equality.
Reaction to Stephen Fry’s statement was swift, with members of the trans community expressing their disappointment and anger in a Reddit thread titled “another celebrity disappointment.”
“I’m disappointed, I looked up to him a bit when I was younger but no,” one user wrote on the r/transgenderUK thread. “I’m just disappointed now.”
Another said it was “sad to see especially from someone I also admired”.
A third wrote: “This has made me really down”.
However, Fry’s words did not come as a surprise to meany, who pointed out his prior refusal to criticise JK Rowling’s contentious views on trans people.
In 2022, whilst appearing on Roger Bolton’s Beeb Watch podcast, Fry said that despite the author’s views making his trans friends “deeply upset” he “would wish them both to retreat.”
He said: “I’m aware you’re talking about an issue where two sides are very sore and very anxious about their enemies. I can’t bear it.
“[Rowling’s] a friend of mine, and I have trans friends and intersex friends who are deeply upset by her. That’s a circle I have to square personally. I’m not going to abandon my friends.”
Fry further said it was not an argument “I want to get involved in” because it was upsetting for “both sides.”
“I would wish them both to retreat and to consider that it is possible for trans people to live full, accepted lives, according to their terms, in society, and for women to have all the rights and dignities that they demand,” he said. “But it isn’t possible if each side looks on the other as an enemy.”
PinkNews has reached out to representatives of Stephen Fry for comment.
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