Following Mississippi's recent bill limiting the right of the LGBT community, Bryan Adams canceled his upcoming concert in protest of the anti-gay law.
The 56-year-old Canadian singer was supposed to perform at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum Thursday, but Sunday night, he released a statement on Facebook explaining that he would not be performing due to the state's "Religious Liberty" bill.
"I find it incomprehensible that LGBT citizens are being discriminated against in the state of Mississippi," he wrote. "I cannot in good conscience perform in a State where certain people are being denied their civil rights due to their sexual orientation. Therefore I'm cancelling my 14 April show at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. Using my voice I stand in solidarity with all my LGBT friends to repeal this extremely discriminatory bill. Hopefully Mississippi will right itself and I can come back and perform for all of my many fans. I look forward to that day."
Mississippi has passed anti-LGBT ‘Religious Liberty’ bill 1523. I find it incomprehensible that LGBT citizens are being...
Posted by Bryan Adams on Sunday, April 10, 2016
The Mississippi law will take effect July 1 and will block anti-discrimination rules for the LGBT community, allowing businesses and individuals to deny services to LGBT people. Supporters of the law claim that it offers protection for Christians who follow traditional views of marriage and gender roles.
Adams is following in Bruce Springsteen's footsteps as he recently canceled a concert in North Carolina this past weekend in protest of that state's new law on gay and transgender rights. Springsteen released his own statement to his website Friday explaining that he was canceling his show in opposition of the "bathroom" law, which dictates which bathrooms transgender people are permitted to use.
"Just as important, the law also attacks the rights of LGBT citizens to sue when their human rights are violated in the workplace. No other group of North Carolinians faces such a burden," Springsteen wrote. "To my mind, it's an attempt by people who cannot stand the process our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all our citizens to overturn that progress. Right now, there are many groups, businesses and individuals in North Carolina working to oppose and overcome these negative developments. Taking all of this into account, I feel that this is a time for me and the band to show solidarity for those freedom fighters."
Following the news of the law in Mississippi, Ellen DeGeneres, who is an LGBT icon, took to her own talk show to slam the state's controversial new law.
"I'm not a political person; I'm really not," she said on her show Wednesday. "But this is not politics, this is human rights. And I mean, when I see something wrong, I have to talk about it... I'm disappointed for several reasons. First of all, Mississippi is the only state I know how to spell. Second of all, that is the definition of discrimination. It is also something that the Supreme Court already rules on when they made marriage a right for everyone. Everyone."
