AfterElton.com asks David Furnish about Elton's controversial gay marriage remarks...

A quite interesting interview with David Furnish has been posted on AfterElton.com. A director's cut of "Diamonds and Tiaras," his documentary about spouse Elton John is being released and the interview gives Furnish the chance to try and clear up Elton's recent infuriating comments about civil partnerships vs. marriage.

Here is an excerpt:

Q. recently did an interview with USA Today where he said he didn't want to be married. He said he was very happy with civil partnership and that if gay people want to be legally joined together, they should just get a civil partnership. He also said part of the reason why Prop 8 failed was because gay people in California went after the word 'marriage.' That set off quite a controversy over here. Has any of that come to your attention?
David Furnish: Yes, it did. Elton and I have had loads of discussions about this. I think there's a couple of sort of mitigating factors that haven't been brought out in the discussion. I think one is that a civil partnership in Britain affords many more rights than a civil partnership in America. That was something that neither of us was aware of. I think the point Elton was trying to make was, America is very much a divided country at the moment. I think there are extremely religious, very fundamental religious people who have very strong views and very strong beliefs and they are very vocal. And I think there are a lot of people [for whom] religion doesn't necessarily play such a big part in their life anymore or they've learned to look at the Bible and religion as more than an evolutionary concept.

And this:

"As for the quote that Elton made to USA Today - it was made on a red carpet at the Elton John AIDS Foundation event in New York called "An Enduring Vision" - and I don't know if you've ever been down a red carpet, but you sort of stop and talk to everybody in little sound bites. So it wasn't an interview that was a specific interview about Elton, let's sit down and talk about your views on Proposition 8. It was literally, "So, are you happy to be here at the charity tonight?" and "How much money are you hoping to raise?" and "Who made your suit?" and "Oh, and by the way, what do you think about Proposition 8? Do you think people should get married?" And he sort of gave his answer and moved down to the next reporter and it certainly got picked up and it had a tremendous impact, but hopefully you and I chatting today can maybe give it the clarity that it didn't get the chance to get at that moment.

To read the full interview, go to AfterElton.com