Gay icon Cher has expanded on why she turned down an offer to
perform at the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Cher first made the revelation in a wide-ranging interview with
Canadian weekly Maclean's.
“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 told the magazine. “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.”
In a television interview with CBS Sunday Morning, Cher
told Anthony Mason that she turned down the effort because “you
can't cross that line.”
“Which line?” Mason asked.
“The gay line, you just can't,” she replied. “My gay
following has kept me in the old days alive. You know, when no one
else came to see me. I've had really bad times.”
“They've always been there?”
“Always,” Cher said. (Watch
the entire segment at CBSNews.com.)
(Related: Russians
dismiss Cher's Olympic snub over Russia's “gay hate.”)