what the crap??

[longslowaccident]

Elton John and Rush Limbaugh agree on same-sex marriage

As many of you know, Elton John caused a controversy this week by performing at anti-gay marriage radio host Rush Limbaugh.

Well, as it turns out, Elton John is anti-gay marriage as well!

Says John:

“What is wrong with Proposition 8 is that they went for marriage. Marriage is going to put a lot of people off, the word marriage… I don’t want to be married. I’m very happy with a civil partnership. If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership… You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships.”

You see, both he and Rush Limbaugh are opposed to gay marriage, but support civil unions.

(source)

Because nothing makes me happier than an openly gay celebrity speaking out against gay marriage!

Seriously, this is so disappointing. Civil unions are NOT marriage, people! They don’t provide the same rights at all!

From Tumblr


my god, are you for real. then get a civil union, you jackass. other people want to get married, and they should have the basic fucking right to.

Comments

[gandolforf.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I'm feeling a pang of it's his own damn fault if people are breathing fire at him because he had no idea what he was talking about. Everyone's human and makes mistakes, but I feel that someone with such a celebrity status as he ought to either know the details and the reality of a situation before speaking on it, or deal with peoples' reactions to how he's come across.

In some ways, I think hearing the logic behind his logic makes the statement worse--it's like rubbing it in the faces of gay couples in the US, because where he comes from, the issue is full of semantics, not rights. I'm very put off of him, saying what was "wrong" with Prop 8 like the people fighting for rights are just being whiny and nitpicky, and...to me he sounded very condescending. I'm not very eloquent right now, and it's hard to explain how I'm seeing this. (Being terribly frustrated with Emmy today isn't helping.) I think you can probably get what I mean, though. I'm sure it's very easy for him to know what's wrong with gay rights issues in the United States when he has equal rights where he lives. I don't blame people at all for breathing fire, whether because of the statement, the intent, or the ignorance.

And because of his status, his statement doesn't help equal rights at all--it only helps anti-gay marriage people go, "See? THIS guy is gay and he thinks a civil union is JUST FINE! Why do you guys have to keep pushing in on our marriage?" (Naturally, I don't expect most people who are against gay marriage to know all the facts about which countries have equal rights under what terminologies.) I don't give the benefit of the doubt to the masses, and...it just burns me more that his statement was all fine and true for equal rights in the UK, yet he knows exactly what was wrong with Prop 8 in America, and is, whether intended or not, spreading the "stfu and get a civil union and be glad you get THAT" mentality. I almost want to call it Equal Rights Privileged. He's got it, so it's not a big deal to make sure everyone else has it, too. Maybe if he knew how different it is in America versus the UK he wouldn't have phrased what he said like he did, or not said it at all, but that doesn't help him now. It's...ignorant and condescending and privileged. (Ha, a basic human right is a privilege argument now. Yay.)

I'm probably not making sense, or not getting across what I mean. The basic gist I guess is that I don't think that's not how he meant it is an excuse at all, and that it really just makes it worse. Sorry for the teal deer.

[amazonqueenkate.livejournal.com]

I do know what you mean. Absolutely. And I wasn't meaning to absolutely excuse what he said because, like I said, I have a lot of problems with the fundemental argument behind what he was saying. I think this is part of the problem with the whole gay rights fight in general, though: we (Americans) know what we want, but we aren't aware of other countries and vise versa. I think there are a lot of countries, the UK included, who would be up in arms about how shitty the gay people here get treated by the government and other organizations, because a large number of the first-world contries we consider ourselves comparible to do have equal rights under law, be it marriage or civil partnership. We are behind the times in a big way and sticking our heels in the mud to catch up.

I understand that the "masses," as you call them, will misinterpret what he said to be absolutely against gay marriage and therefore equal rights, and I do think that is his stupidity and his mistake. I also think that even if he were to retract his statement, people at this point wouldn't hear it.

His choice of words and, indeed, perhaps talking at all, was very ill-concieved, I'm not denying that, I just wanted to point out the fact that it was a lack of education (or thought) on his part because most of the people who are angry about it don't understand the US/UK thing, and I have a compulsive need to educate. ;)