Role model alert!
Wentworth Miller doesn’t limit his heroics to our TVs — the Prison Break stud is a hero in REAL LIFE too!
Folks from the St. Petersburg International Film Festival recently extended a personal invitation to Wentworth, hoping he’d attend their prestigious event, but the now openly gay actor wasn’t having it.
He made it clear that he has zero intention implicitly condoning Russia’s horrendous treatment of its LGBT community!
Wentworth wrote the festival organizers a scathing response, saying he was “deeply troubled” by the country’s anti-LGBT laws and that he won’t be visiting that part of the globe until they make a few changes!
Not for a million Rubles! Not for a billion Rupees! Not even for a trillion rice cakes!
He revealed:
“..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.”
We agree 100% and applaud Wentworth for sacrificing any festival accolades for the cause!!
Hopefully this & other equally brave acts of self-sacrifice will help highlight a very serious and ongoing miscarriage of human rights!!
You’re an inspiration to us all, good sir! Keep up the good work!
Read Wentworth’s full letter to St. Petersburg International Film Festival (below):
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
[Image via WENN.]
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