Russian Groups Want Elton John Banned

An antigay Russian parents organization has called for gay performer Elton John's upcoming show in Russia to be shut down.

Earlier this month, John said he felt he must perform in Russia, in spite of the antigay laws barring so-called propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships. John told London newspaper The Guardian that he must go in order to support LGBT Russian fans.

"I've got to go. ... As a gay man, I can't leave those people on their own without going over there and supporting them," he said. "I don't know what's going to happen, but I've got to go."

But the Ural Parents Committee has asked President Vladimir Putin, who signed the antigay bill into law earlier this year, to stop the concert. Yuri Ageshchev, the coordinator for the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods, also said the government should ban John's upcoming concert.

"The statement by this gay guy -- Elton John -- about his support for gays and other perverts during the upcoming concert in Moscow is an insult to all Russian citizens," Ageshchev told the Novy Region news agency, according to The Moscow Times. "It also makes a mockery of our recently enacted law against the public propaganda of gay ideas."