The British pop celebrity Elton John lamented the “rising swell of anger and homophobia” in america and described a number of legal guidelines not too long ago handed in Florida that curtail L.G.B.T.Q. rights as “disgraceful.”

“It’s all going pear-shaped in America,” John, a longtime chief for homosexual rights and visibility, mentioned in an interview printed Tuesday in Radio Occasions, during which he pointed to a rise in violent incidents and up to date laws curbing rights. “We appear to be going backwards. And that spreads. It’s like a virus that the L.G.B.T.Q.+ motion is struggling.”

Extra than 520 items of such laws have been launched in over 40 states this 12 months, a document, in line with the Human Rights Marketing campaign, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group.

“I don’t prefer it in any respect,” John mentioned, referring to the more and more hostile local weather. “It’s a rising swell of anger and homophobia that’s round America.”

John, 76, will headline Glastonbury, Britain’s largest music pageant, on Sunday, as his prolonged closing tour, Farewell Yellow Brick Highway, heads towards its finale in Stockholm on July 8. The tour, which can have had over 330 dates, started in 2018 however was interrupted by the pandemic in addition to John’s hip surgical procedure.

As he ready to carry out at Glastonbury, the final British date on the tour, John mentioned that he didn’t know if the rising anti-L.G.B.T.Q. sentiment is as prevalent in Britain. “I don’t know if it’s round Britain, as a result of I haven’t been right here that a lot,” he mentioned.

However he referred to as the scandal across the outstanding British information anchor Phillip Schofield — who not too long ago resigned after admitting he had a relationship with a youthful man — “completely homophobic.”

“If it was a straight man in a fling with a younger girl, it wouldn’t even make the papers,” John mentioned.

Within the interview with Radio Occasions, John mentioned he may finally be open to doing a residency after his farewell tour ends, “however not in America.” That, his representatives mentioned, is for a similar motive that he had determined to cease touring: He needs to spend extra time along with his husband and youngsters, who stay in Britain.