Whilst in Australia last month during a concert tour, gay rock icon Sir Elton John delivered an “up yours” message to Prime Minister John Howard for opposing same-sex marriages.
Sir Elton, while in Sydney for three concerts, said he was unimpressed with the lack of legislation to protect gay couples in Australia.
Last December, Sir Elton, 59, and his partner David Furnish became one of the first gay couples in England to tie the knot in a civil partnership ceremony.
“It was just a commitment I wanted to make because I love him, and vice-versa, and it was just a great day,” Sir Elton told the Seven Network.
Asked what he would like to say to Mr Howard about his views on gay marriage, Sir Elton replied: “Up Yours”.
As reported in OUTinPerth last month, Sir Elton has also recently hit out at organised religion for fuelling anti-gay discrimination.
This is Mr Howard’s second dispute with a high profile rock star in as many months. While he was in Australia with U2, Bono said Mr Howard should look at increasing Australia’s aid to third world countries as a way of fighting terrorism.
The Howard Government earlier this year scuttled plans to allow gay Civil Unions in the Australian Capital Territory, by using a rarely evoked power that the Federation has over Territories.
However in June this year, Mr Howard said his Government was not “anti-homosexual”. “It is not a question of discriminating against them,” he said.
“It is a question of preserving as an institution in our society marriage as having a special character and if you look at the legislation, what it effectively says, a civil union is not a marriage, but it will be treated for all purposes as being equivalent to a marriage.”
In November, U2 front man, Bono had a dispute with the Australian Prime Minister over Australia’s funding for third world countries. In response Mr Howard, who baulked at a meeting with the Irish Pop sensation, took aim at rock star activists for failing to acknowledge how globalisation was helping to lift millions of people out of poverty.
