Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato have always struck me as really smart, talented entertainers. But when they announced today that they won’t be taking their tour to North Carolina, I gained immense respect for them as people.
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The duo is set to co-headline the Honda Civic Tour: Future Now in a couple months and they planned to hit Raleigh and Charlotte, but after HB2 passed, they’ve decided to pass on North Carolina. HB2, or the “bathroom law,” is the bill that prevents any local government within the state from enacting any legislation that would protect the rights of the LGBT community, including allowing them to use the bathroom for the gender that they identify with.
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Basically, it strips people of their basic civil rights and Jonas and Lovato aren’t supporting any state with such backward values.
The performers released a statement on both of their social media profiles, saying, “One of our goals for the tour has always been to create an atmosphere where every single attendee feels equal, included, and accepted for who they are.”
They also said, “North Carolina’s discriminatory HB2 law is extremely disappointing, and it takes away some of the LGBT community’s most basic rights and protections. But we will not allow this to stop us from continuing to make progress for equality and acceptance.”
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What’s so inspiring about this announcement is that they didn’t have to. The Honda Civic Tour happens annually, and they certainly could have blamed contracts or obligations if they didn’t want to take a stand and risk alienating their younger fans or if they just wanted the money. But they decided that equality is more important than any of that. That sends an incredible message to their young fans — the message that, above all, our fellow humans are most important and that any infringement on civil rights is intolerable.
I applaud them both and hope that the generation of young people who idolize both Jonas and Lovato take note of the important message here.
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