We’re supportive of any effort to right North Carolina’s wrongs!
By now you’ve probably heard about the handful of Southern states who have passed anti-LGBT bills that limit rights to same sex couples and transgender individuals… but luckily the rest of the country has been fighting back.
In fact, celebrities, companies, and shows like Disney, Marvel, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Ray Cyrus, The Walking Dead, PayPal, and, more recently, Jimmy Buffett and Deutsche Bank have publicly condemned the Religious Freedom Acts for being blatantly discriminatory and have even punished the states by taking their businesses elsewhere.
Related: Stephen Schwartz Bans Wicked Shows In NC Over Anti-LGBT Bill
However, while these boycotts have brought awareness of the bigotry to the National level, not everyone in North Carolina believes cancelling shows and projects is the best method of recourse.
North Carolina Needs You is a group of organizations and concerned citizens who are urging artists to play their scheduled events and to use them as platform to show lawmakers that they’re wrong.
Local LGBT Centers and other queer collectives banded together following The Boss’ announcement last Friday, saying:
“We need your help. We need you here, in North Carolina, helping to raise money and awareness in order to defeat such policies and the politicians who enacted and now defend them.
North Carolina Needs You is here to encourage artists of all kinds, from musicians and comedians, to dance troupes and festival organizers, to keep their dates in North Carolina — and even to schedule new ones — in order to generate the social and financial capital necessary to win in November and beyond.
If you cancel your show, you use your voice to make a statement. If you keep the show and stand with the people of North Carolina by funneling profits to help them, you use your voice and your money to make a statement├óΓé¼ΓÇ¥and, ultimately, a change.”
While we still think A-Listers publicly disapproving of the new laws does show the North Carolina government the errors of their ways, we also believe the LGBT residents of the state deserve to have their voices heard!
Learn more about the ten inspirational organizations in North Carolina Needs You who want to fight NC’s laws at home (below)!!!
Equality NC: http://equalitync.org
Progress NC Action: www.progressncaction.org
NC NAACP: http://www.naacpnc.org
NC ACLU: http://www.acluofnorthcarolina.org
Lillian’s List: http://www.lillianslist.org
LGBT Center of Raleigh: http://www.lgbtcenterofraleigh.com
LGBT Center of Durham: http://www.lgbtqcenterofdurham.org
North Star LGBT Community Center of Winston-Salem: http://www.northstarlgbtcc.com
Southerners on New Ground: http://southernersonnewground.org
Queer Oriented Radical Days of Summer: http://www.qords.org
Good luck, y’all!
[Image via LGBT Center of Raleigh.]
