TV: Stephen Fry Expresses The Difficulties of Being Gay All Over The Globe

I'd been waiting for Stephen Fry's documentary series «Out There» to come out (what a choice of words, dear me) for a while. Stephen have been teasing us on his Twitter page all the time. I caught up, however, when he was visiting a notorious Russian deputy Vitaliy Milonov, now famous for his preposterous and rather blurred law on banning «gay propaganda» (oh, really?) among minors. For those of you who haven't seen the series yet the life of gay people in five countries (UK, USA, Uganda, India, Brazil and Russia) is being explored by Mr. Stephen Fry — actor, writer, presenter, Britain's national treasure, LGBT activist and an open gay himself.

Turns out quite dangerous form of homophobia on a federal level still thrives in so many places, moreover, sometimes the rights you've been granted with may be taken away so easily. In this documentary Fry meets different people belonging to different cultures and environments, naturally, many of them hurt and given the experience he has, a conversation moves to another level. Well, anyone would feel sorry for a mother who's lost her son due to a hate crime, you might say. But there's this certain kind of compassion the one who's been there can provide. When Farshid from Iran shares his story on escaping to Britain to avoid hanging which is the price to pay for being gay there adding that he'll rather commit suicide than be punished by death penalty if the government doesn't allow him to stay. You can literally see it in Fry's eyes that he actually gets it. 

Those are very sensitive matters to Stephen though it plays a bad joke on his facing some world's famous homophobes. He suddenly becomes overwhelmed and emotional, Stephen Fry, the most polite and reserved person in the whole world! «Homosexuals are not interested in making other people homosexual. Homophobes however are interested in making others homophobic». - he tells them but they are not ready to hear that. «You only hate when you're ignorant and afraid». So true but I expected a bit more from someone who «could destroy you verbally any time he chooses» (GQ UK).

«Out There» is both very moving and thought-provoking, it makes you really look out there and notice what's going on around you. It's also very sad but with a little glimpse of hope.Should I even bother to mention how personal it is? Fry doesn't simply narrate the story – he lives every single moment of it.

«If these films do anything it is they reinforce the fact that behind every statistic there is a beating human heart». Well, I wish that too.