Russian Parents’ Group Wants Vladimir Putin To Ban Elton John’s Concert In Moscow
Elton John is already getting flak for not cancelling his planned concert in Russia despite the country’s anti-gay propaganda law. And now, a Russian parents’ committee has asked President Vladimir Putin to ban the English musician from performing in Moscow and Kazan.
In June, the Russian president has signed into a law a bill that bans the “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors.” While it doesn’t ban being homosexual itself, it prohibits activities or demonstrations of gay pride as those are deemed damaging to minors.
The law has been criticised by the international community as being draconian and a violation of human rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) community. Many groups around the world have been protesting in an effort to move the Winter Olympic Games 2014 to another country as Olympians and tourists alike wouldn’t be exempted from the law.
There are even celebrities who have declined invitation to the country as a sign of support to the LGBT community, such as “Prison Break” star Wentworth Miller and Cher.
But for Elton, an out-and-proud gay man who raises two children with his partner David Furnish, the way to support his homosexual fans in Russia is to perform for them. He will perform in Moscow on December 6 and in Kazan on December 7 as planned.
“As a gay man, I can’t leave those people on their own without going over there and supporting them. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’ve got to go,” he told Guardian newspaper in an interview.
According to Reuters, a local parents’ group in central Ural region is protesting the visit of the 66-year-old multi-award-winning singer/songwriter after he said he intended to violate Russia’s new controversial law.
“The singer intends to come out in support of local sodomites and break the current Russian law, directed at protecting children,” the group’s open letter to Putin reads.
Cher recently revealed that she has turned down an invitation to perform at the Sochi Winter Olympics in February out of solidarity with the gay community. [READ]
In August, in a surprising move, Wentworth came out as a gay man in an open letter declining an invitation to the Russian Film Festival.
Elton John in Russia in 1979: