Bruce Springsteen has cancelled his upcoming show in North Carolina on account of their transphobic bill, the first location he's boycotted since Sun City in 1985. While I disagree with the decision to cancel the show rather than boycott looking forward, I understand why Springsteen did this. What I don't understand is that while protesting North Carolina's bathrooms, he remains silent on Mississippi's "Religious Freedom" act that would allow businesses to turn away LGBT customers, and will be playing a show next week in Auburn Hills, MI. You know I'm not one to question The Boss's reasoning and judgement, but right now I can't help but question The Boss's reasoning and judgement.
The North Carolina bill is getting a lot more attention. Not nearly as many people are even aware of the Mississippi bill.
Funnily, as someone else pointed out on twitter, North Carolina has a lot of business to lose and companies pull out their planned presences, but Mississippi stands to lose nothing.
Transwoman Laura Jane Grace and Against Me! to play in North Carolina. I think this is a significantly better activism than what Bruce and Ringo are doing. It doesn't punish the fans who had no say in the matter, and doesn't make every concert they play into a political statement.
Even though she says it's a protest concert, I think it's more solidarity with the resistance. She's going there to tell the trans* people of North Carolina that they have support from the greater trans* community. I'm sure there's a fair number of gender queer punks down there who find a lot of comfort in being able to see her at this time in particular.
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Funnily, as someone else pointed out on twitter, North Carolina has a lot of business to lose and companies pull out their planned presences, but Mississippi stands to lose nothing.