Russian President Vladimir Putin stated
in recent remarks that out British singer Elton John is “mistaken”
about LGBT rights in Russia.
Putin was asked at the G-20 summit in
Osaka, Japan about an Instagram post from John. In that post, John
stated that he was deeply upset with Putin's claim that Russia has
“no problem with LGBT persons.”
“I have a lot of respect for him, he
is a genius musician, we all enjoy his music, but I think he is
mistaken,” Putin said.
Russia has a “relaxed and
unprejudiced” attitude toward people who are LGBT, Putin claimed,
adding that Russian laws prohibiting the “propaganda of
homosexuality among minors” is necessary because children need to
be “left alone.”
John was responding to earlier comments
Putin made in an interview with the Financial Times. In that
interview, Putin said that he was fine with LGBT people but that
liberal views were “obsolete.”
“We have no problem with LGBT
persons,” Putin said. “God forbid, let them live as they wish.
But some things do appear excessive to us. They claim now that
children can play five or six gender roles.”
“Let everyone be happy, we have no
problem with that. But this must not be allowed to overshadow the
culture, traditions and traditional family values of millions of
people making up the core population,” he added.
On Friday, John posted a photo on
Instagram of himself with his husband David Furnish and their two
sons. The word “CENSORED” was superimposed on the photo. He
called Putin's remarks “hypocrisy” based on the recent censoring
of gay references in Rocketman in Russia.
“I was deeply upset when I read your
recent interview in the Financial Times,” John wrote in the
photo's caption. “I strongly disagree with your view that pursuing
policies that embrace multicultural and sexual diversity are obsolete
in our societies. I find duplicity in your comment that you want LGBT
people to ‘be happy’ and that ‘we have no problem in that.' Yet
Russian distributors chose to heavily censor my film Rocketman
by removing all references to my finding true happiness through my 25
year relationship with David and the raising of my two beautiful
sons. This feels like hypocrisy to me.”
“I am proud to live in a part of the
world where our governments have evolved to recognise the universal
human right to love whoever we want,” he said. “And I’m truly
grateful for the advancement in government policies that have allowed
and legally supported my marriage to David. This has brought us both
tremendous comfort and happiness.”