Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday defended his laws toward the LGBT community and rebutted Elton John’s criticism of them.
Calling him a “genius musician,” Mr. Putin disputed the performer’s recent social media post about gay rights in Russia while addressing reporters during the Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan.
“I think he’s wrong on this. We have very calm attitude towards the LGBT community. We aren’t biased against them,” Mr. Putin said in Russian, state-owned media reported.
“We have a law everyone scolds us about — the law banning propaganda of homosexuality among minors. But listen, let us allow a person to grow up and become an adult first, and then decide who they are. Leave the children alone,” Mr. Putin added, as translated by state media.
Mr. Putin faced scrutiny from the British singer Friday following the publication of a Financial Times interview this week in which he denied discriminating against the Russian LGBT community.
“Russian distributors chose to heavily censor my film ’Rocketman’ by removing all references to my finding true happiness through my 25 year relationship with David and the raising of my two beautiful sons. This feels like hypocrisy to me,” the musician reacted on Instagram to the interview. “I am proud to live in a part of the world where our governments have evolved to recognise the universal human right to love whoever we want.”
Enacted under Mr. Putin’s leadership in 2013, the so-called Russian “gay propaganda law” bans the promotion of “non-traditional” sexual relations to minors. It has been widely condemned by human rights monitors, in addition to international groups including the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and a United Nations committee, among others.
The U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory in April warning against visiting the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, citing “credible reports of arrest, torture and extrajudicial killing” of members of the LGBT community by regional authorities.
Mr. John, 72, last performed in Russia in 2017. He previously spoke out against the gay propaganda law during a 2014 concert in St. Petersburg shortly after it took effect.
“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,” he said on stage.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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