Comments on: Rush Limbaugh says he and Elton John agree on gay marriage

By: GS

GS — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 00:17:22 +0000

@Zack – this is typical of the culture that has grown up in recent years. Where people only focus on what they see as being the benefits and ignore any negatives. The 24 hour cafe culture was one example and the war on terror another. The first led to the destruction of our city centres at night and the second to the loss of hard-won civil liberties.

There will be a downside in terms of pressure to conform and a reduction of freedom and ultimately this is just going to extend the tyranny of organised religion into the lesbian and gay community. Why is a civil partnership inferior? Some straight couples would love to have one.

I believe many of the people who are most keen for something called a ‘marriage’ want it because they are desperate to be exactly like straight people in every respect. No doubt many had a religious upbringing and the need to get married was drummed into them from an early age. In fact I would question how much they have actually accepted being gay or lesbian. Frankly people like that shouldn’t be driving anything forward in our community.

What will be the next bandwaggon? Perhaps the right for gay men to be inplanted with embryos on the NHS so they can become pregnant and give birth? After all it is so unfair and unequal that we can’t.

God forbid that out ‘community leaders’ and activists should focus on anything that actually affects more than a few thousand already highly privileged gay men and women.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:03:47 +0000

I can only repeat again that EJ like far too many others appear more concerned with power and money than any real values. Gay people should end any support for him or anything or anyone that accepts discrimination. I had a lot of Elton John Albums, they have been tossed. As for the anti-marriage comments of dean, perhaps you just never met anyone you loved enough that such a commitment means anything to you. It took me till my 40′s before I met anyone I could see spending a lifetime with, now marriage means a great deal to me personally that goes way beyond just civil rights. But on a civil rights platform alone there is no valid reason in a modern democracy for any law abiding person to be denied rights that are given to another. I have seen few straight marriages that could hold up to any concept of virtue, yet they have the full respect of the law. As a man who had a sham marriage with a woman when I was younger and a very real heartfelt marriage with a man in latter years I find it deeply offensive that the sham was never questioned, but the real one is.

By: Zack

Zack — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 01:55:10 +0000

GS, It wouldn’t matter one little bit if only ONE gay couple wanted to get married. Civil Rights shouldn’t be determined by how many people want them. NONE of the people who you claim don’t want to get married will be forced to, or even encouraged to, get married if they don’t want to. So what exactly is your point? Is it that since YOU don’t like something NO ONE should have access to it no matter how much THEY may want it? Does that pretty much sum up your position?

There were a lot of black people in the American south that didn’t want integrated school. Some of them didn’t even want to vote. Should that have been a good reason to deny equal civil rights to those who DID want them?

By: GS

GS — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:31:27 +0000

Marriage is an outdated institution. Instead of inviting society to put the handcuffs on (and that’s what it is) we should celebrate civil partnerships and the fact that we are slightly different and always will be.

If and when gay marriage is legalised I bet there will be no more than a thousand or two each year. There have been less than 40,000 civil partnerships since 2004.

Almost no one wants marriage other than a few insecure people who are desperate to conform (as they see it) at all costs. Plus it’s a hobby horse for middle class activists who want to attack the church instead of tackling the great problems that our community faces.

While a small number of smug scene-going people will get married, vast swathes of LGBT people will remain completely excluded from our increasingly pointless so-called ‘community’.

By: dean

dean — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 04:39:05 +0000

silly old poof played sun city so he has form.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 18:24:51 +0000

Before rushing in to condemn him, perhaps we should wait to hear Elton John confirm what Limbaugh says…

By: SamB

SamB — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 15:35:53 +0000

Elton John is being ridiculous.

Why support a ‘separate but equal’ system? It is an anomaly!

Marriage equality FTW!

By: Rich

Rich — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 07:30:40 +0000

I really do not undersand why gays and lesbians – people who are in the LGBT Community are now standing against gay marriage. Am I missing something here? What is wrong with gay marriage. There is absolutely no mention of same sex marriage, for or against, in the New Testament, so I really do not understand what the problem is. David and Jonathan of the Old Testament were married. Jonathan’s father, King Saul, called David his son-in-law in the original Hebrew version of that passage.
So where are we now? I am trying very hard to get my head around all this.

By: Dromio

Dromio — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:50:07 +0000

Another one for the uncle tom list.

By: George Vye & Ward Stewart

George Vye & Ward Stewart — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:02:32 +0000

Oh yes, and let us not forget the little reported fact that the great state of Arizona now has a bill banning ethnic study classes in public schools…boycott? You better believe it.

By: TM

TM — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:05:10 +0000

I’ve listened to Rush for years and he’s hardly a “shock jock”. Elton is wrong about California, there are domestic partnerships but not same-sex marriages. He is right about Arizona boycotters…. There should be no controversy about where he performs anyway. Who says everyone in the audience has to agree with a performer politically in order for him to do a show?

By: Ian Bower

Ian Bower — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:08:31 +0000

Zoek – yes you have a point.

By: ZoeK

ZoeK — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:48:53 +0000

No, I am happy PinkNews reported this.
Now I know that if I ever see Elton John in a retirement home, to spit; not smile.

By: Ian Bower

Ian Bower — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:43:02 +0000

Maybe PinkNews should stop reporting the ignorant outpourings from this man.
He certainly doesn’t represent anything conteporary about being gay in the 21st century.
Let’s forget about him.

By: Stephen_C

Stephen_C — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:58:30 +0000

Elton John supports heterosexual marriage though.

After all he did marry the poor unfortunate Renate Blauel in the 1980′s

He really is lacking in any sort of integrity.

By: Zack

Zack — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:21:23 +0000

Oh, and this is the SAME Elton John who in the sixties and early seventies said he was STRAIGHT and NOT gay or bisexual. Then he said, no, no, no, I’m not really straight, I’m BISEXUAL but definitely NOT gay. And then we all know where he went from there.

So WHY exactly should ANYONE look to Elton as if she’s the ultimate queen of the gay universe. Why should her opinion matter so damned much to anyone except those who are trying to lend credibility to their own positions on gay inferiority by pointing to gays who share their opinion that gays deserve something less than full civil equality>

By: Zack

Zack — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:17:03 +0000

With gays like Elton and lesbians like Penny Wong in Australia and Angela Eagle in Britain, there seems to be no shortage of powerful and/or famous homos willing to be front and center in culture wars aiding and abetting those who would deny us FULL civil equality.

DISGUSTING!

By: Luke

Luke — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:33:22 +0000

Isn’t what Elton John said inconsistent?

He said he (qua gay man) has no legal rights in California.
He knows that in California there are civil partnerships.
He says he supports Civil partnerships.
He is saying that civil partnerships offer no legal rights in California.

On the assumption that he supports Civil partnerships because they offer certain legal rights, this is bizarre!

By: James Justice

James Justice — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:24:30 +0000

The reason, Mr John, that other stars are boycotting Arizona is because of the recent anti-immigration legislation that has just been passed. They are not boycotting it because of gay rights!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:10:41 +0000

Elton John really is a amoral tosspot. If Stalin or Hitler were still alive, he would have performed for them for enough money.

On the specific issue of his lack of support for gay marriage, what is it with these anti gay marriage gays? If they are so against marriage, fine, they are entitled to hate it, but they (Stonewall and Summerskill and the whole crew) appear hellbent on now allowing us to marry and imposing their views on us. What right do they have to tell us that we can’t get married because they are morally opposed to it and want to enforce that view on the rest of the gay community? Who made them our boss?

I am not the biggest fan of Tatchell’s tactics, but you know, he is the best thing that ever happened to the gay community in this country. He doesn’t himself want to get married but he doesn’t let this stop him supporting it for those of us who want it.

He at least takes a pragmatic view, unlike all these other tosspots who want to impose their views on us. And why is it that these anti marriage gays are so active in English speaking countries and not elsewhere? In non English speaking countries the major gay players are all in favour of marriage. What is it about the UK/Australia/USA that produces these people?