Elton & David Brush Off "Family Shield"

Sir Elton John's partner David Furnish has laughed off the furor surrounding a magazine photo of the pair which was covered with a "Family Shield" by one retailer in Arkansas in a bid to "protect" shoppers.

The stars showed off their newborn son Zachary on the cover of Us Weekly in January, but the happy snap proved too shocking for some in Mountain Home. A local resident discovered a censored edition of the publication in a Harps grocery store, and posted a snap of it on her Twitter.com blog, sparking controversy and prompting representatives from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to investigate.

However, the couple is refusing to dwell on the censorship issue, with Furnish openly laughing as Sir Elton described the incident during an interview on Sky News. The singer said, "One store in America hid our faces on the magazine with the baby but you know what - we've had so much love and so much positive things that you can't dwell on the negativity.

"Some of the facts they print are just ridiculous - I'm more interested in bringing up my child. I want him to grow up not feeling bigoted, not feeling hatred towards anybody who is different. I want him to feel that somebody different is still a good person. Good values and discipline and love, that's all I want him to have."