Protesting Russia’s anti-gay laws, actor Stephen Fry calls for Olympics to be taken from Sochi

LONDON – British actor and writer Stephen Fry has called for the 2014 Winter Olympics to be taken away from Sochi due to Russia’s new anti-gay laws.

The openly-gay activist has released a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron and International Olympic Committee executives in which he asks them not to give Russian President Vladimir Putin “the approval of the civilized world.”

Russia introduced a law that bans so-called “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” and imposes fines on those holding gay pride rallies.

Fry writes that “an absolute ban” on the Olympics being staged in Russia is “simply essential.”

Fry, who tweeted a link to his letter to his 6 million Twitter followers, says Putin “is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it.”