Guess what? Elton John is totally committed to gay rights all over the world! Here’s what he wrote about it in The Guardian in June 2005:

I want our government, which has presided over many positive changes for gay people here in the UK — an equal age of consent, partnership rights, the abolition of the rightly reviled Clause 28 — to ensure that ending violations of gay people’s fundamental human rights around the world becomes an explicit issue in its diplomatic relations with other countries… I strongly believe that when thousands of us refuse to look away and stay silent we make a difference to what politicians do and say.

And to prove his commitment to gay rights, there is no amount of money he’s not prepared to accept from people who violate them:

Later this month, the flamboyant star is due to perform at an open-air concert at the luxurious Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi. It’s a surprising move considering the United Arab Emirates’ appalling human rights record on gays. Homosexuality is illegal and hormone injections are administered to “cure” gays and turn them straight.

Yep, in the UAE, sodomy is punishable by death. (And not from embarrassment!) Bravo to Sir Elton for putting aside his silly principles and accepting his hosts’ cultural differences. And their enormous paycheck. Just keep an eye out for snitches backstage, Reg! That hairpiece won’t cover up a neck stump.