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Tyson Fury accused of 'aggressive' homophobia by Shadow Cabinet Minister Chris Byrant

Fury, 27, from Manchester, defeated Wladimir Klitschko on Saturday night

Monday 30 November 2015 00:34 GMT

Tyson Fury prior to his IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO World Heavyweight Championship title fight against Wladimir Klitschko (Getty)

A Labour Shadow Cabinet Minister has accused new heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury of “aggressive” homophobia that encourages young gay people to take their own lives.

Boxing fans were jubilant after Fury, 27, from Manchester, defeated Wladimir Klitschko on Saturday night in a shock victory over a boxer who had not lost for 11 years.

However Chris Bryant MP, Shadow Leader of the Commons, wrote on Twitter that he was “not celebrating Tyson Fury’s win”.

“His aggressive style of foul homophobia is precisely the kind that leads to young gay suicides,” he added.

Earlier this month, Fury told the Mail on Sunday that there were three things that needed to happen “before the devil comes home”.

LGBT+ rights around the globe

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1/9LGBT+ rights around the globe

LGBT+ rights around the globe

Russia

Russia’s antipathy towards homosexuality has been well established following the efforts of human rights campaigners. However, while it is legal to be homosexual, LGBT couples are offered no protections from discrimination. They are also actively discriminated against by a 2013 law criminalising LGBT “propaganda” allowing the arrest of numerous Russian LGBT activists.

AFP/Getty

LGBT+ rights around the globe

Brunei

Brunei recently introduced a law to make sodomy punishable by stoning to death. It was already illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in prison

AFP/Getty

LGBT+ rights around the globe

Mauritania

Men who are found having sex with other men face stoning, while lesbians can be imprisoned, under Sharia law. However, the state has reportedly not executed anyone for this ‘crime’ since 1987

Alamy

LGBT+ rights around the globe

Sudan

Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal under Sudanese law. Men can be executed on their third offence, women on their fourth

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LGBT+ rights around the globe

Saudi Arabia

Homosexuality and gender realignment is illegal and punishable by death, imprisonment, whipping and chemical castration

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LGBT+ rights around the globe

Yemen

The official position within the country is that there are no gays. LGBT inviduals, if discovered by the government, are likely to face intense pressure. Punishments range from flogging to the death penalty

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LGBT+ rights around the globe

Nigeria

Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal and in some northern states punishable with death by stoning. This is not a policy enacted across the entire country, although there is a prevalent anti-LGBT agenda pushed by the government. In 2007 a Pew survey established that 97% of the population felt that homosexuality should not be accepted. It is punishable by 14 years in prison

Reuters

LGBT+ rights around the globe

Somalia

Homosexuality was established as a crime in 1888 and under new Somali Penal Code established in 1973 homosexual sex can be punishable by three years in prison. A person can be put to death for being a homosexual

Reuters

LGBT+ rights around the globe

Iraq

Although same-sex relationships have been decriminalised, much of the population still suffer from intense discrimination. Additionally, in some of the country over-run by the extremist organisation Isis, LGBT individuals can face death by stoning

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“One of them is homosexuality being legal in countries, one of them is abortion and the other is paedophilia. Who would have thought in the 50s and 60s that those first two would be legalised?” he added.

Tyson Fury serenades Wladimir Klitschko

“When I say paedophiles could be made legal, it sounds crazy. But if I had said to you about the first two being made legal in the 50s, I would have been looked upon as a crazy man.”

In 2013, Fury was fined £3,000 by the boxing authorities after saying two other boxers were “gay lovers”.