Singer Sir Elton John says he's “fed
up” with the rhetoric of gay rights opponents, including the
church.
The
63-year-old new dad told The
Associated Press that he's tired of hearing hateful messages
against the gay and lesbian community.
Sir Elton said America needs more
dialogue and less “stone throwing.”
“We need people to say, 'OK. I'm
straight. You're gay. Let's get along,” he said. “I'm sick and
tired of people being hateful to each other in this country.”
“The church is losing people left,
right and center because people are fed up with the rhetoric that
they're giving them,” he added.
The Rocket Man singer helped
raise more than $3 million last week for the American Foundation for
Equal Rights (AFER), a group formed specifically to support a
challenge to California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, at the
Beverly Hills estate of Ron Burke.
“I think I have it all,” Sir
Elton told the 750-person crowd. “I have a wonderful career, a
wonderful life. I have my health, I have a partner of 17 years, and
now I have a son. I don't have everything because I don't have the
respect of the church or like politicians who tell me that I'm not
worthy, that I'm lesser because I'm gay. Well, fuck you!”
Sir
Elton, however, disappointed fans two years ago when he said he was
satisfied with civil unions. His partner, David Furnish, and he
entered a UK civil partnership in 2005. The couple welcomed baby
Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John in California on Christmas Day.