Alice Arnold tears into anti-gay boxer: Talk like this can drive people to suicide
Alice Arnold has laid into “homophobic” boxer Tyson Fury – as her wife Clare Balding prepares to host the Sports Personality awards he is nominated for.
The heavyweight champion has refused to apologise for claiming that once homosexuality, paedophilia and abortion are all made legal, the world will end.
The boxer also claims to have “evidence” that paedophilia was legalised by a fictional ‘Gay Rights Act 1977’ – but the BBC has resisted pressure to rescind his Sports Personality of the Year nomination.
Former BBC newsreader Alice Arnold weighed in on the feud in a Guardian comment piece. Arnold is married to Clare Balding, who will be presenting the awards alongside Gary Lineker and Gabby Logan.
The former broadcaster wrote: “Would someone like to explain to Fury that more than half of all lesbian, gay, bisexual young people experience homophobic bullying in Britain’s schools?
“When a great sporting figure spouts off comparing homosexuality to paedophilia, that figure is not likely to drop. It is talk like this that leads to young people suffering bullying and mental illness and in some cases being driven to suicide.
She wrote: “The BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year is the highest-profile award in Britain. It is a massive honour to the recipient, and sporting achievement has to be the most important factor, but we can’t ignore the ambassadorial role.
“If you are in the privileged position of being a sporting hero, then use your voice for good, not to damn a minority of the population.
“If you don’t like gay people and think we are the devil incarnate, then keep it to yourself unless you want blood on your hands – and not on your boxing gloves. It will be up to us to cast our votes on 20 December. Perhaps this year ‘personality’ really IS important.
