{"id":486539,"date":"2019-05-31T15:05:44","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T21:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=843002"},"modified":"2019-05-31T15:05:44","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T21:05:44","slug":"elton-john-protests-russia-censoring-rocketman-over-homosexual-propaganda-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/elton-john-protests-russia-censoring-rocketman-over-homosexual-propaganda-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Elton John Protests Russia Censoring \u2018Rocketman\u2019 Over \u2018Homosexual Propaganda\u2019 Law"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Elton John<\/a> and the filmmakers behind Rocketman<\/a><\/em> released a joint statement protesting reports that Russian censors were editing scenes of homosexuality out of the biopic. The film contains imagery of men undressing and kissing, having sex and participating in a fantasy orgy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe reject in the strongest possible terms the decision to pander to local laws and censor Rocketman<\/em> for the Russian market, a move we were unaware of until today,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cParamount Pictures have been brave and bold partners in allowing us to create a film which is a true representation of Elton\u2019s extraordinary life, warts and all. That the local distributor has edited out certain scenes, denying the audience the opportunity to see the film as it was intended is a sad reflection of the divided world we still live in and how it can still be so cruelly unaccepting of the love between two people. We believe in building bridges and open dialogue, and will continue to push for the breaking down of barriers until all people are heard equally across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian<\/a><\/em> reports that a Russian media company has allegedly altered the film, removing around five minutes of footage, citing laws that ban \u201chomosexual propaganda.\u201d A Russian film critic, Anton Dolin, wrote on Facebook that \u201call scenes with kissing, sex and oral sex between men have been cut out.\u201d He also claimed that it excised a line at the end of the movie that said John was raising kids with his husband; instead if says he started an AIDS foundation and continues work with his musical partner. Additionally, scenes of drug use were removed.<\/p>\n

Over the years, John has spoken out against Russia\u2019s draconian laws regarding sexual orientation. When the country passed anti-gay laws a few years ago, he wrote an open letter on his website. \u201cVicious homophobia has been legitimized by this legislation and given extremists the cover to abuse people\u2019s basic human rights,\u201d he wrote<\/a> in 2014.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, he continued to tour there and later that year addressed how he felt<\/a> about the laws at a concert. \u201cAs a gay man, I\u2019ve always felt so welcome here in Russia,\u201d he said. \u201cStories of Russian fans \u2014 men and women who fell in love dancing to \u2018Nikita\u2019 or their kids who sing along to \u2018Circle of Life\u2019 \u2014 mean the world to me. If I\u2019m not honest about who I am, I couldn\u2019t write this music. It\u2019s not gay propaganda. It\u2019s how I express life. If we start punishing people for that, the world will lose its humanity.\u201d The year after that, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to meet with John to discuss gay rights. The Guardian<\/em> reports that no such meeting has taken place.<\/p>\n

In an essay for The Guardian<\/a><\/em>, John discussed what it meant to him to see his life dramatized on the big screen, as well as his intention to tell his story as truly as possible. \u201cSome studios wanted to tone down the sex and drugs so the film would get a PG-13 rating,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut I just haven\u2019t led a PG-13 rated life. I didn\u2019t want a film packed with drugs and sex, but equally, everyone knows I had quite a lot of both during the Seventies and Eighties, so there didn\u2019t seem to be much point in making a movie that implied that after every gig, I\u2019d quietly gone back to my hotel room with only a glass of warm milk and the Gideon\u2019s Bible for company.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elton John and the filmmakers behind Rocketman released a joint statement protesting reports that Russian censors were editing scenes of homosexuality out of the biopic. The film contains imagery of men undressing and kissing, having sex and participating in a fantasy orgy. \u201cWe reject in the strongest possible terms the decision to pander to local laws […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-486539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 08:40:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486539\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}