Elton John has been making a lot of headlines recently.
He was in a hilarious commercial that aired during the Super Bowl. His foundation just revealed that they donated more than $8.3 million to HIV prevention in 2011. He wants Justin Timberlake to play him in an upcoming biopic called Rocket Man. Along with Paul McCartney, John has been booked to play at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. And he added more stops to his 2012 Elton John tour. However, the headline that really caught my attention was “Elton And David In ‘Gay Dad Stigma’ Counseling.”
Apparently John and his husband David Furnish are worried that their son will be double stigmatized because he has two dads and one of them is famous. Elton told Attitude magazine that they’ve begun to seek advice from counselors. This advice has resulted in a scrap book (true story, that’s not a joke).
I have no doubts that John and Furnish love and adore their son who was born to a surrogate mother on Christmas Day 2010. I also think their concerns are genuine. Still, worrying about Zachary being stigmatized (i.e. being labeled socially undesirable) is like worrying about Elton John getting enough time to practice the piano.
John is one of the world’s most popular and most successful entertainers. When someone realizes that Zachary’s father is Elton John, they aren’t going to make fun of his gay dads or his famous father, they are going to kiss his tuckus. They want some of that Goodbye Yellow Brick Road money
And just who exactly is going to stigmatized Zachary? Madonna’s kids? David and Victoria Beckam’s kids? Elizabeth Hurley kids? Bernie Taupin? It’s not like someone isn’t going to date Zachary because his dads are gay and/or one of them sang with Kiki Dee.
Zachary might come face-to-face with ignorance and class warfare if he was on track to attend public school and work as a longshoreman, but he’s not. Zachary will attend a school with other kids begat by the rich and famous. And unless Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy is revealed to cause cancer thus causing a string of costly lawsuits, Zachary will never have to work a day in his life.
To put it another way, Zachary’s world is as far from ordinary as you can get. His godmother is Lady Gaga. His dad spends more money on flowers then most people spend on their mortgage. And his family has homes in London, Venice, Nice, and Atlanta. Not only that, but his dad knew Princess Diana!
Elton and David shouldn’t be worry about stigmas but keeping their son’s feet on the ground. After all, there aren’t too many kids, regardless of the genders of their parents, who have a father that has his own Las Vegas residency show called “Million Dollar Piano.” In 2012, when John isn’t playing The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, or protecting his son from the bigotry of record executive Seymour Stein and magazine editor Ingrid Sishcy, he’ll be performing all over the world.
John is godfather to one of Seymour Stein’s children and Ingrid Sishcy is one of Zachary’s godmothers. In otherwords, Zachary is surrounded by people who accept his fathers’ lifestyle and and have no problem with his dad’s fame.