Singer Elton John feels sad that there is still so much "shame" and stigma around being gay.

The 70-year-old, who has sons Zachary and Elijah with partner David Furnish, thinks LGBTQ people are all too often simply "tolerated" rather than being "accepted", reports femalefirst.co.uk.

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Asked the biggest problem facing young gay people, John told Grazia magazine: "Tragically it is still shame. Too often LGBT people are tolerated rather than accepted, let alone embraced."

He added: "When almost half of all gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual pupils are bullied at school and, as a result, more than 60 per cent self-harm and 40 per cent of trans people have tried to take their own life, it's a serious wake-up call that gay stigma and shame are still poisonous."