Nearly 50,000 people demand BBC drop Tyson Fury from shortlist over harsh comments recently made

BBC has named heavyweight champion Tyson Fury as a finalist for their "Sports Personality of the Year," and thousands of LGBT supporters are not too happy about it.

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There has been much controversy surrounding Fury's "radical" comments regarding same-sex marriage, abortion, and women, too.%shareLinks-quote="According to the Daily Mail, 'Fury said homosexuality is one of the three things that will lead to the apocalypse.'" type="quote" author="Daily Mail" authordesc="" isquoteoftheday="false"%The heavyweight champion recently told the Daily Mail: "There are only three things that need to be accomplished before the devil comes home: one of them is homosexuality being legal in countries, one of them is abortion and the other one's paedophilia. Who would have thought in the '50s and '60s that those first two would be legalised?"

The online petition calls "BBC should remove homophobic Tyson Fury from Sports Personality of the Year shortlist." The Change.org petition has already garnered 46,000 signatures as of Friday, Dec. 4 at noon.

BBC released a statement addressing the petition, saying: "The nominees for BBC Sports Personality of the Year are decided on their sporting achievements. As Fury became heavyweight champion of the world over the weekend, the panel feel that he should be a contender for this year's award."

Many on Twitter have weighed in on the situation, including Chris Bryant, a member of UK Parliament:

See some of the celebrity voices behind the LGBT community here:

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