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Here's a sign that Russia continues to make no sense: the country has reportedly denied Selena Gomez, pop singer and Justin Bieber girlfriend, entry into the country because they are afraid she'll violate the country's gay propaganda laws. Meanwhile, the country seems to be okay with acts like Elton John and Cher. "U.S. pop star Selena Gomez has been forced to cancel two concerts in Russia after indirectly falling victim to Russia's anti-gay law," reports The Moscow Times.

The current laws in Russia make it a punishable offense to tell minors that LGBT people are equal to heterosexual people. And when you think about Gomez's fan base, there are a lot of teens (and adults) who like her music. The inevitable question, then becomes: Was Gomez (during an interlude of course) going to go rogue and tell a bunch of teens that gay people are okay?

There are no reports that a "We're here, we're queer, etc." has been incorporated into Gomez's act. But the singer did go to Los Angeles's Gay Pride earlier this summer. And she has come forward and talked about how she was bullied as a teen, which many gay people go through.

The odd thing is that Gomez wouldn't be the first person we'd guess to be a victim of a crackdown. Just this week Cher revealed that a Russian official asked her to perform at the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies in Sochi in February. Take that in. Cher. Cher! And also this week, Elton John said he would perform at a concert in Russia come December. That is not a typo. And to date, there is no news of those performers' visas (in Cher's case, a hypothetical one) being denied (yet).

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.