North Carolina has been under some serious heat lately following its controversial anti-LGBT “bathroom bill”. Passed last month, the bill prevents local governments from passing their own anti-discrimination laws, therefore demanding that transgender people use bathrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their “biological sex.”
However, the music industry is not taking to this lightly. The likes of Bruce Springsteen, Boston, Pearl Jam and Ringo Starr and many more have cancelled their shows in the state as a sign of support for those who are directly affected by the laws. Unlike them however, folk singer-songwriter and apparent Taylor Swift fan Joshua Tillman, aka Father John Misty has instead decided to go ahead with his show and donate all proceeds from his Charlotte concert to Time Out Youth, an LGBT support centre based in the city.
“The bill is obviously bullshit. [If] I thought playing a show for my fans in North Carolina was in any way some tacit endorsement of this fearful, petty, ignorant nonsense, I wouldn’t.”
“This show represents a start in investing in the plight of other Americans.”
Tillman joins the likes of Against Me!, Cyndi Lauper, Duran Duran and Mumford & Sons in using the scheduled performance to protest and raise awareness and funds against the bill.
Read the Tillman’s full statement below:
The bill is obviously bullshit. [If] I thought playing a show for my fans in North Carolina was in any way some tacit endorsement of this fearful, petty, ignorant nonsense, I wouldn’t. I also play states that have oppressive drug laws designed to imprison the disenfranchised, rig elections, deny women their dignity, defend the reckless and insane practice of selling guns and sustain a permanent underclass with hypocritical, opportunist readings of archaic documents written by land-stealers who never intended political privilege to extend past their buddies. These are obviously all huge systemic problems. But for me, this show represents a start in investing in the plight of other Americans.
Image: Rolling Stone