Gay icon Cher says she turned down an offer to perform at the
upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi because of all the “gay hate”
in Russia.
“I can't name names but my friend called who is a big oligarch
over there, and asked me if I'd like to be an ambassador for the
Olympics and open the show,” Cher said in a wide-ranging interview
with Canadian weekly Maclean's.
“I immediately said no. I want to know why all of this gay hate
just exploded over there. He said the Russian people don't feel the
way the government does.”
(Related: Majority
of Russians would reject gay neighbor, co-worker.)
Cher added that she and her former husband, the late
entertainer-turned-politician Sonny Bono, were bullied for looking
different.
“People hated Sonny and I in the early days because we looked
and acted so different. Sonny was always getting into fights –
people would call him 'fag' and he'd get his nose broken – only
because we were dressing different. And these were our street
clothes!”