Star of the upcoming biopic on gay codebreaker Alan Turing, Benedict Cumberbatch says America needs a woman president and a gay president to cure it of Christian far right homophobia.
Benedict Cumberbatch says America is in need of a cure for the homophobia the Christian far right has inflicted upon it. His cure?Â
The Emmy award winning actor says a woman president and a gay president should do the trick.
Watch: Benedict Cumberbatch Stars As Gay UK Codebreaker Alan Turing In ‘The Imitation Game’
“Oh, the Christian far right?,” Cumberbatch, 38, tells the Daily Beast. “Yes. Very homophobic. You need to have a female president next, and then after that, a gay president. That’s the full journey from Obama’s legacy onwards.”
Cumberbatch, who recently won an Emmy for his portrayal of the iconic English detective in “Sherlock,” talked about homophobia in relation to his upcoming film, “The Imitation Game.” He’ll be playing Alan Turing, the man who broke Nazi codes and saved the Allies in World War II, only to be convicted of being gay. Turing was chemically castrated by the British and later, it is believed, committed suicide — although some say he was murdered.
England’s treatment of Turing was “disgusting,” and “gets me very, very angry,” Cumberbatch said.
Speaking of an anti-gay British politician, he says closeted gay men are “always the biggest homophobes.”
“The scenes of Turing undergoing the chemical castration are really gut wrenching,” the Daily Beast says. “And it’s still going on in North America with the Christian far right,” Cumberbatch responds.
“There are courses and doctors and meds handed out to ‘cure’ people of their homosexuality, and it’s shocking that it still goes on. It’s also shocking that any time there’s any kind of hardship, the minorities are immediately scapegoated—and that includes homosexuals in Russia, the Golden Dawn in Greece. The Golden Dawn came out of a financial crisis and people wanted answers, and the minute you start stirring up nationalistic feelings, minorities are the first people to get it because they’re the easiest to scapegoat. It’s terrifying.”
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