Bruce Springsteen has canceled his concert due to be held on Sunday in Greensboro, North Carolina, as a sign of protest against the recently passed law on gay and transgender rights, which forces transgender people to go to the bathroom that matches their sex assigned at birth.
Springsteen highlighted as well the importance that the law attacks the rights of LGBT citizens to sue when their human rights are violated in the workplace and assured that no other group of North Carolinians faces such a burden.
“To my mind, it is an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress,” the 66-year-old added.
At the moment, there are many groups, business, and individuals in the state working to oppose and overcome the negative developments, the singer said. Taking that into consideration, he believed this was the time for him and the band to show solidarity for those “freedom fighters”.
According to the statement, he assured that some things are more important than a rock show and that the fight against “prejudice and bigotry”, which is happening right now, is one of them.
The bill was presented and approved in a matter of hours in front of the state General Assembly during a special session last month, which aimed to take up the bill at a cost of $42,000, held no hearing and allowed little debate about it.
Increasing complaints
Even though the law has taken the attention of Bruce Springsteen, the singer is not the first influencer to ever raise concerns over the implications the law could have. The bill has been having an impact even on the economics of the northern state.
Business and political leaders like executives at Starbucks, Facebook, Google and even Citibank have condemned the law and signed a public letter asking the state’s governor, Pat McCrory, who is running for reelection, to repeal the law.
More recently, an important company against the bathroom law, Paypal, has canceled its plans to open an operations center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The implications in the economics are losses of about 400 jobs in the state and about $3.6 millions of investment, as reported by the New York Times.
Source: The New York Times