Despite calls for Elton John to join the Sound Strike, an artist boycott of Arizona over the racial profiling that will be encouraged by SB 1070, the musician went ahead and held his scheduled concert in the controversial state. Not only that, he had a message for those other artists taking a principled stand against a racist law: “We are all very pleased to be playing in Arizona. I have read that some of the artists won't come here. They are fuckwits! Let's face it: I still play in California, and as a gay man I have no legal rights whatsoever. So what's the fuck up with these people?”
Yes, California disappointed queer rights activists when it withdrew same-sex couple’s right to marry, which is what I assume John is referring to. (California, I thought you were liberal. I'm still ashamed for you.) Our nation as a whole treats LGBTQ people abysmally when it come to their right to be legally joined to the person they love free from discrimination. Far from taking a stand against that, John even played Rush Limbaugh’s wedding, though the man's hate rhetoric is instrumental in continuing to deprive queer people of equal rights.
Queer people also continue to be at risk of hate crimes (as are immigrants) or discrimination in the workplace, amongst other problems, although there is legislation protecting an LGBTQ person's right to work and holding hate crime perpetrators accountable. But here's the thing: as bad a job as our country is doing on securing equal rights for queer people, to say that in California "a gay man [has] no legal rights whatsoever" is just plain bullshit.
Police do not have the right to ask a person for identification for "looking" gay. In the U.S., homosexuality is not a crime; you cannot be locked up for it; you cannot be deported for it.
