Actor Wentworth Miller comes out
Posted August 22, 2013 6:46 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Prison Break actor Wentworth Miller came out on Wednesday and criticized the Russian government for its anti-gay policies.
Miller, 41, had been invited to the St. Petersburg International Film Festival.
In a letter, he declined, saying “I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly.”
The letter was posted on the website of advocacy organization GLAAD. Click here to read the full letter.
The law, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, outlaws “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” to children, threatening so-called offenders with prison sentences, hefty fines or, in the case of foreigners, deportation.
Advocates of gay rights are calling for the upcoming 2014 Winter Games to be relocated due to the law.
However, U.S. President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron have both ruled out a boycott because it would penalize the athletes who have trained for years to compete. The U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Games are widely viewed as failures.
With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press
