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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Letters

Tyson Fury unleashes a bout of rhetoric

Tyson Fury (left)  in action against Wladimir Klitschko during their WBA, IBF & WBO heavyweight title fight.
Tyson Fury (left) in action against Wladimir Klitschko during their WBA, IBF & WBO heavyweight title fight. ‘We must stand up against bullies like Tyson Fury who spread hateful lies,’ says Jonathan Cooper. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters

Tyson Fury should be removed from the shortlist of Sports Personality of the Year (Police launch hate-crime investigation over Tyson Fury comments, 8 December). His comments linking homosexuality to paedophilia only serve to foment hatred and incite violence. It is exactly this kind of nonsensical rhetoric that is used to justify the persecution of LGBT people in the 78 jurisdictions worldwide that still criminalise homosexuality. We must stand up against bullies like Tyson Fury who spread hateful lies which only add weight to the laws that treat millions of LGBT people like criminals.
Jonathan Cooper
Chief executive, Human Dignity Trust

• Hilary Benn spoke about the need to fight fascism in Syria, but it seems a more subtle form lurks here in the UK; not the far right but the politically correct bigots who try to silence anybody who does not share their worldview. You may not agree with Fury’s views, but we are supposed to live in a tolerant, diverse, multicultural, democratic society, that values free speech, not a fascist state where anyone who does not agree with the state’s mantra has to be silenced.
Andrew Brown
Derby

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

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