Elton John announced he wanted to meet with Vladimir Putin to discuss Russia’s anti-gay laws. Putin called – will he oblige?
On Saturday in a BBC interview iconic singer Elton John mentioned he wanted to meet with Vladimir Putin to talk about the Russian president’s extreme anti-gay laws.Â
“I’d love to meet him. I’d love to sit down with him and talk to him,” John said. “At least if I meet him and say, ‘Come on, let’s have a cup of tea and talk about this’, he may laugh behind my back and… call me an absolute idiot, but at least I can have a conscience and say I tried.”
“I’d say, ‘Come on… gay people are not the problem. We are not the problem of the world. The world faces much bigger problems than gay people. Be accepting and let’s all pull together and try and solve the problems of the world. Don’t isolate and be prejudiced against gay people.'”
“The Rocket Man,” as John calls himself, based on his hit 1972 song, announced on Instagram yesterday that President Putin had actually called him, and it appears a meeting may be in the works.
“Thank-you to President Vladimir Putin for reaching out and speaking via telephone with me today. I look to forward to meeting with you face-to-face to discuss LGBT equality in Russia,” John wrote.
The British-born singer played in Russia in 2013 as Putin’s anti-gay laws were being condemned internationally. They have led to an extremely heightened anti-gay environment for the Russian LGBT community, with homophobic violence, including rapes and kidnapping, often going unpunished.
“As a gay man, I’ve always felt so welcome here in Russia,” Elton John told a St. Petersburg audience when he returned to Russia in 2014. “If I’m not honest about who I am, I couldn’t write this music. It’s not gay propaganda. It’s how I express life. If we start punishing people for that, the world will lose its humanity.”
Will he be able to advance LGBT rights in Russia? That’s yet to be seen, but this is a start.
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Hat tip: Contact Music
Image of President Putin via The Kremlin
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