Will Wentworth Miller's coming out embarrass Russia's rampaging official homophobes just a little? One can hope

by Ken

To be honest, I never heard of Wentworth Miller before now. He is, I gather, the star of Prison Break, and lots of people have heard of him. And now he has picked what seems to me an excellent moment and method for coming out. This letter he wrote to the St. Petersburg (Russia) International Film Festival is posted on the GLAAD website.

August 21, 2013

Re: St. Petersburg International Film Festival / "Guest of Honor" Invitation

Dear Ms. Averbakh:

Thank you for your kind invitation. As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes.

However, as a gay man, I must decline.

I am deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government. The situation is in no way acceptable, and 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.

Perhaps, when and if circumstances improve, I'll be free to make a different choice.

Until then.

Wentworth Miller

Member, HRC
Member, GLAAD
Member, The ManKind Project

I don't see how this response could be improved on, in either content or tone.

As I assume everyone is aware by now, Russia is now in the throes of a national wave of virulent official homophobia, culminating in a law that bars something called "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations." It has been made pretty clear that any word or deed that takes an other-than-hate-filled attitude toward any aspect of homosexuality can and likely will be dealt with to the full extent of the law.

There's no doubt that a lot of Russians harbor attitudes toward homosexuality that would have been familiar in the U.S. of, say, ten years ago. And since homo-hating is even now a popular hobby in our country, it's hardly surprising that Russian politicians can strike a responsive chord by targeting the homos. Or perhaps I should say "scapegoating" the homos? Because there's surely little doubt that the campaign is sanctioned, if it didn't actually originate, in the Kremlin with President Vladimir Putin, for whom it provides a handy diversion from having to explain to all those ordinary Russians why their lives suck.

It's on account of the goddamn homos!

There are a lot of people saying or thinking that it's none of our business. It's a domestic Russian matter, and we have no right to dictate our values to the Russian people. I like to think that this argument wouldn't be heard if we were talking about, say, a country in which slavery was legal. But in any case, the argument says nothing in regard to Wentworth Miller's beautifully expressed point: "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."

I like to think that President Putin didn't reckon, in his cynically opportunistic targeting of Russia's LGBT community, on the way the rest of the world has been changing. And I like to think that Wentworth Miller's impeccable response to the invitation to the St. Petersburg Film Festival will be read by prospective participants in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. It's a sad and regrettable thing to ask would-be Olympians, who after all get this opportunity only every four years, to just say no to the Olympics.

It's going to require a lot of soul-searching, but I hope that a lot of those would-be Olympians, not to mention the organizing committees of the participating countries, will think it through to the point that Wentworth Miller did -- that "the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government" constitutes a situation that's "in no way acceptable."

It's a pretty picture: President Putin holding an Olympics to which no one comes.

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