Russell T Davies claims gay society is in ‘greatest danger ever’, thanks to Trump ‘hate speech’
Russell T Davies claims gay society is in ‘greatest danger I’ve ever seen’ after Donald Trump win (Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for BAFTA)
Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has warned that gay society has been put in the “greatest danger” he’s ever witnessed because of president Donald Trump’s “weaponising [of] hate speech”.
Speaking to The Guardian at the Gaydio Pride awards on Friday (14 March), Russell T Davies slammed both Trump and controversial billionaire Elon Musk, claiming: “I’ve seen a difference in the way I’m spoken to as a gay man since that November election, and that’s a few months of weaponising hate speech, and the hate speech creeps into the real world.”
He added that “a wave of anger, violence and resentment is heading towards us on a vast scale”.
Davies, famous for his gay dramas such It’s A Sin and Queer as Folk, went on to say: “I’m not being alarmist… I’m 61 years old. I know gay society very, very well, and we’re in the greatest danger I have ever seen.”
Referring to Musk, he said: “We’ve had bad prime ministers and we’ve had bad presidents before. What we’ve never had is a billionaire tech baron openly hating his trans daughter. It is terrifying because he and people like him are in control of the facts, they’re in control of information, they’re in control of what people think, and that is what we’re now facing.”
“If we have to be those rebels in basements again, then that’s what we’ll become.”
Musk has become increasingly involved in politics since Trump took back the White House for the Republicans.
Davies warned in his keynote speech at the awards ceremony that times were “darkening beyond all measure”.
The LGBTQ+ community would do “what we always do in times of peril, we gather at night”, he continued, recalling that queer artists have always “met in cellars, and plot, and sing, and compose, and paint, and make speeches, and march” during times of oppression.
“If we have to be those rebels in basements again, then that’s what we’ll become.”
Trump has been criticised for a wave of executive orders targeting the LGBTQ+ community. So far, he has proclaimed that the official policy of the US is that there are “only two sexes”, banned transgender men and women from serving in the military and moving to restrict gender-affirming healthcare for trans youngsters under the age of 19.
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