fayfreethinkers.com

Elton John being interviewed by Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters, for The Observer:

Elton John: I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays. But there are so many Christian people I know who are gay and love their religion ...

Jake Shears: My Mom's a Christian and she loves me; that whole side of my family is Christian and I have no problem with it. I just feel we need to stop worrying about pro-gay movements and start worrying about fundamentalist movements. It's not just about how gay people are treated - it's about how people are treated in general.

See here.

The first step away from religion for most of the people I've known is to say what Elton John did (elsewhere in that interview), organized religion doesn't work. I did myself - go through a stage of saying, "I'm a christian, but not of any sect". I've gotten over the "I'm a christian" part. Music could the the connecting point between peoples who don't really want to go out killing each other anyway. It won't ever reach the wingnuts of whatever religion who believe their "prime directive" is to kill anyone who isn't them. And it isn't a "gay" issue, it's a people issue. The religions that are out to get gays are also repressive of women and of whatever ethnicities they aren't. They are totally "us v. them" and the teachings are, "kill or otherwise suppress them". I don't really think getting rid of religion would solve the problem, though. They'd just band together in some other group with the same purpose and activities - the KKK, while made up of fundie christians, isn't a religion, neither is the group McVeigh belonged to. It's the "liberal's burden" somehow protect their rights and our own rights, while keeping them from killing us.