Thanks a lot, Elton John...

Elton John is an opinionated man, as we all know. And sometimes, his opinions rub people the wrong way - like now: Elton was rather dismissive of the fight for marriage in California, a place where he holds his annual Oscar night AIDS fundraiser and where he has spent plenty of time.

"I don't want to be married. I'm very happy with a civil partnership. If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership," Elton said in New York this week at a benefit for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. "The word 'marriage,' I think, puts a lot of people off."

So it puts them off Elton. Does that mean we should not have it?

In December 2005, Elton and David Furnish tied the knot in a civil partnership ceremony in Windsor, England. But, clarified the singer, "We're not married. Let's get that right. We have a civil partnership. What is wrong with Proposition 8 is that they went for marriage. Marriage is going to put a lot of people off, the word marriage."

"You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships."

Elton, I am very disappointed with you. You had an opportunity to speak out for our equal rights and you blew it.

Thanks a lot.