Madonna claims she was fined $1 million for supporting LGBTQ rights in Russia, but she never paid it.
The singer posted footage from a 2012 concert in which says “I am here to say that the gay community and gay people here and all around the world have the same rights — to be treated with dignity, with respect, with tolerance, with compassion, with love.”
She captioned the post, “I made this speech in St. Petersburg eight years ago. I was fined 1 million dollars by the government for supporting the gay community. I never paid…..”
However, the truth is that after the 2012 show, a group of conservative activists filed a class-action lawsuit against Madonna, the venue and the promoter, Planeta Plus, demanding 333 million rubles, around $10.7 million at the time, in damages, claiming they were insulted by the American singer’s statements and actions in support of the gay community.
A Russian court threw out the lawsuit and the singer was never fined a single dollar.
“There was no gay propaganda during the show,” Yevgeny Filkenshtein, head of PMI Group, which promoted the show, told Billboard. “Madonna just called on the audiences to be tolerant towards people of other sexual orientation and religious persuasions.”
“We protected Madonna from all that in any possible way and dealt with the lawsuit by ourselves,” he added. “The court eventually sided with us and the artist, and no fine was imposed.”
I made this speech at a concert in St. Petersburg 8 years ago. I was fined 1 million dollars by The government for supporting the Gay community. I never paid……………….. #freedomofspeech #powertothepeople#mdna https://t.co/6wH53V4aUn pic.twitter.com/LGhV5gUerc
— Madonna (@Madonna) July 20, 2020
