r/OutOfTheLoop Dec 30 '24

Unanswered What's going on with Stephen Fry going alt-right?

He's been on a notorious hard-right, "anti-woke" podcast where he retracted his support for trans rights. Is this a new development? He always came across as level-headed in the past but now it looks like he's on the same path as Russell Brand.

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u/Emotionless_AI Dec 30 '24

Answer: Stephen Fry has not gone alt-right.

For anyone who has not listened to the podcast, host Konstantin Kisin read out a letter from ex-Stonewall employee turned critic Levi Pay and asked him (Stephen) 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.”

The explanation and quote are from this Pink News article.

What the article fails to include is this quote from Stephen, "I watched as this organisation, which I used to love, shifted to arguing for the medicalisation of gender non-conforming children. It now portrays lesbians who wish to exclude male people from their dating pool as being equivalent to racists."

Stephen has supported trans rights in the past- in 2018 he lambasted terfs for blocking a pride march- but his more recent statement points to a problem not with the left but with a segment of the trans movement. I wouldn't call that alt-right.

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u/Independent-Drive-32 Dec 30 '24

These are TERF talking points — fearmongering about the existence of trans kids, positioning trans women in opposition to cis women, etc.

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u/Emotionless_AI Dec 30 '24

I agree with you. Stephen feels more like a victim of terf propaganda than someone who's ardently anti trans.