Why I have signed the petition to remove Tyson Fury from the BBC SPOTY Award shortlist
Tyson Fury became boxing heavyweight champion of the world last weekend and on Monday it was announced that he was on the annual BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2015 shortlist.
Shortly afterwards a Change.org petition to remove Fury from the shortlist was launched by an LGBT campaigner and reached 30,000 signatures in the first two days.
Why was the petition launched?
In November, before winning the title, Fury said in an interview with UK tabloid newspaper the Mail on Sunday that:
“There are only three things that need to be accomplished before the devil comes home,
"One of them is homosexuality being legal in countries, one of them is abortion and the other is paedophilia. Who would have thought in the 50s and 60s that those first two would be legalised?"
The Daily Mail has since published the full audio and transcript of the interview on its website.
On Sunday Shadow Cabinet Minister Chris Bryant wrote about Tyson Fury on Twitter:
“His aggressive style of foul homophobia is precisely the kind that leads to young gay suicides.”
I couldn’t agree more with Mr Bryant.
As Scott Cuthbertson, who started the Change.org petition, said:
“The worst thing that can happen is he’s [Fury] on the stage on the night collecting an award in front of LGBT young people, in Northern Ireland [where the ceremony is held this year] of all places, which has already faced huge battles in the courts – it’s the one place in the UK which doesn’t have same-sex marriage.
“This is about him being put up as a role model, nothing more. That’s all it’s about,” he continued.
In response to the petition, the BBC released the following statement:
“The nominees for BBC Sports Personality of the Year are decided on their sporting achievements. As Fury became heavyweight champion of the world over the weekend, the panel feel that he should be a contender for this year’s award.”
As it currently stands, Fury will be invited to attend the Sports Personality of the Year ceremony on 20 December 2015.
Why I signed the petition
By including Fury in its Sports Personality of the Year 2015 shortlist, the BBC is ignoring its moral duty to help put an end to homophobia – in sport and in society as a whole.
Homophobia is a very serious and prevalent a problem for vulnerable LGBT people in Britain and across the world. Gay people are still losing their lives because of it.
If a sportsperson or any other celebrated public figure so publicly and aggressively says such hateful things about gay people (or about anyone based on prejudices such as national origin, ethnicity, race, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation for that matter) and encourages damaging and unhelpful myths about them, speaking on television, in the media and on social media, such as Fury has done (on more than one occasion), then there should be no place for them on any awards shortlist that celebrate success, sporting or otherwise.
The fact that Fury’s name even appears on the SPOTY shortlist is a complete and utter disgrace and is an insult to all the lives that have been and will continue to be lost because of homophobia.
It is for these reasons I have signed the Change.org petition to remove Tyson Fury from the BBC SPOTY shortlist and will personally complain online directly to the BBC.
I encourage anyone else reading this to do just the same.
Let’s make our voices heard to help put and end to discrimination.
