Elton John has said he wants to meet Vladimir Putin to tell him to end his “ridiculous” stance on gay rights in Russia.
The singer, who has been a persistent critic of Russia’s law banning “homosexual propaganda”, said his conscience dictated that he try to persuade the Russian president to end prejudice against people, even if he was ridiculed for doing so.
He made the offer after speaking at a conference in neighbouring Ukraine, where he met President Petro Poroshenko to lobby him about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights.
John used concerts in Moscow in 2013 and St Petersburg last year to condemn the law, introduced in June 2103, which makes it illegal to equate straight and gay relationships or to distribute material on gay rights. The singer also published an open letter on his website last year urging Russia to repeal the legislation and said he “would welcome the opportunity to introduce President Putin to some Russians who deserve to be heard, and who deserve to be treated in their own country with the same respect and warm welcome that I received on my last visit”.
A Human Rights Watch report published in December said gay people in Russia were being subjected to increasing harassment and violence, suggesting the law had fuelled intolerance. The report focused on the rise of anti-LGBT vigilante groups, which often lure gay men into online traps and then film their humiliation.
Hostility to the LGBT community in Russia has been reinforced by a number of disparaging pronouncements by officials, including Putin’s warning last year to gay people travelling to the Winter Olympics in Sochi to “leave children in peace”.
John told the BBC: “Give me a break. You are president of Russia, and you go and say stupid things like that?”
The Rocket Man singer became the first western rock star to perform in the then Soviet Union, in 1979. He performed eight concerts ending each night with a cover of the Beatles track Back in the USSR.
Resisting calls for a boycott of Russia, John has previously explained that he continues to play concerts in the country, despite its draconian laws targeting homosexuals, so that gay men and women do not feel that like they are isolated.
He said he had always been greeted with warmth by the Russian people. Asked what he would say if he met the Russian president, he said: “I’d say ‘Come on … gay people are not the problem here. They’re not the problem of the world. The world faces much bigger problems than gay people. Be accepting and let’s all pull together and try to solve the problems of the world but don’t isolate and be prejudiced against gay people.”
Asked last year about the Russian attitude to gay people, Putin said the LGBT community was “not discriminated against in any way”. He said John was an “outstanding individual” who was loved by millions in Russia, “despite his orientation”.
Ukraine has faced criticism for failing to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. John, who was in Kiev, with his husband, David Furnish, wrote on Instagram: : “After speaking at the YES Ukraine 2015 Conference today in Kiev, I met with Ukraine President Poroshenko about the importance of legislative changes to support LGBT rights.
One Comment
Tom Welsh
Sunday morning I was listening to BBC Radio 4. First they covered this story about Elton John rebuking Russia and President Putin for their law forbidding attempts to “convert” young people to homosexuality. The very next item was about a British bishop who was facing charges for (allegedly, long ago) sexually interfering with a series of “young men”.
The BBC journalists did not appear to notice any connection between the two stories.