Elton John urges LGBTQ community to resist ‘hostility’ during Pride month

Elton John is calling on the LGBTQ community to resist what he describes as growing political hostility, using the launch of a new awards initiative to deliver a pointed message ahead of Pride month.

“The hostility is real, and it is growing,” the “Rocket Man” singer told Out magazine in an exclusive interview published Monday. “We are seeing rights rolled back, funding cuts, and communities that were already vulnerable being made more so.”

“This is not a moment for silence or looking away,” Mr. John added, describing the Elton John Impact Awards as “one way of saying clearly — we are here, we are proud, and we are not going away.”

The awards, created by iHeartMedia and Procter & Gamble, launched Monday as a podcast series broadcast across more than 300 iHeartRadio stations and reaching upward of 188 million listeners. The format was chosen deliberately to broaden the initiative’s reach “at a pivotal time in history,” Out reported. Honorees this year include actors Jonathan Bailey and Laverne Cox; musicians Chappell Roan, Orville Peck and Melissa Etheridge; and tennis pioneer Billie Jean King.

“Art and visibility have always been part of how this community survives, and that hasn’t changed,” Mr. John told the magazine.

Mr. John’s husband, David Furnish, used the occasion to defend the legacy of gay activism in public health.

“Gay men transformed modern medicine during the AIDS crisis,” Mr. Furnish told Out. “They fought for faster access to life-saving drugs, forced their way into the scientific conversation, and created community-based healthcare models now considered standard practice around the world.”

Mr. Furnish said that legacy is under threat. “Funding cuts, criminalisation, and political hostility” pose risks to systems built to combat AIDS, he argued, though he expressed confidence that the disease could still be eradicated. “The science has never been better,” he said. “But the systems and communities built to deliver it have to survive first.”

“We are focused on protecting what the LGBTQ+ community built, because most people don’t know they built it,” Mr. Furnish added.

The awards evolved from the “Can’t Cancel Pride” concert series, which iHeartMedia and P&G launched during the pandemic and which raised more than $17 million for LGBTQ nonprofits over five years. Beneficiary organizations this year include the Elton John AIDS Foundation, GLAAD and The Trevor Project, among others.