When Elton John took to the stage with Eminem in 2001 he inadvertently legitimized homophobia in the music industry but also in society at large. Discussion of homophobia was effectively shut down and trivialized.
Four years later George Bush´s re-election campaign largely ran on homophobia. In 2008 California law was overturned by proposition 8 and LGBT´s were suddenly stripped of their marriage rights and returned to their 2nd class citizenry.
Worse still many states across The United States amended their constitutions and went even further not only banning marriage but also civil partnerships. Yet this was year the year Elton chose to come out and not give his support for same sex marriage. He doesn´t believe in it?!
He never cared to explain why, but the LGBT community shook their heads.
It´s rather ironic he chose a civil partnership with David Furnish and then have a child. So what part of marriage for gays doesn´t he believe in? He performed at anti-gay Rush Limbaugh´s wedding in 2010 and stayed silent when Eminem went on to insult Elton´s friend Lady Gaga with a transphobic remark last year. Being a LGBT kid is almost impossible in schools across America now and many are driven to suicide by physical violence and bullying. I wish Elton John would have been more political and out spoken sooner.
He has had a change of heart (no pun intended) recently but the question remains, what took him so long. When your rich and shielded from the harshness of the world you don´t need to worry about trivial issue´s like being fired just because you happen to be a LGBT person, being excluded from your community just because you are LGBT and don´t fit in with religious values, or worry about the benefits that heterosexuals automatically get when the sh*t hits the fan.
And yet he is capable to speak loud and queer over the nominations at the Golden Globes. Talk about trivial. And to attack a peer who was one of the few stars in the day that supported AIDS causes, raised awareness and encouraged Safe Sex way before it became politically correct and before Elton had the courage to came out of the closet. Madonna aligned herself with LGBT´s back in a time when it could have had major implications to her career. Indeed much of the criticism aimed at Madonna during her career has had a homophobic undercurrent. No mainstream American artist had the guts to do what she did in the 80´s and 90´s when America was in the grip of AIDS and gay panic. This what at a time when Elton had married a woman to deflect those rumors and George Micheal was firmly closeted. Okay you don´t like her music or her live shows, fair enough but she isn´t the enemy here.
She went on stage during her tour in California after the Prop8 fiasco and tried to comfort her audience and encouraging them be positive to fight on, things will change. Similarly she went on Ellen in 2010 to talk about the bullying and suicide´s of gay teens. Where was Elton´s voice and pocket book in all this? He´s no Kathy Griffin that´s for certain.
He strikes me as being ambivalent about himself and out of touch with reality for the majority of LGBT´s. It would be great if he would support shelters for homeless LGBT´s, suicide prevention and educational tools for parents and schools and less time aiming at our allies. If Lady Gaga can do it why can´t he?
