Bryan Adams Announces Cancellation Of Mississippi Show Over "Extremely" Discriminatory Anti-LGBT Law
By Ed Biggs in Music / Festivals on 11 April 2016
'The Groover from Vancouver' has followed The Boss by boycotting a show in protest over anti-LGBT laws.
Bryan Adams has followed Bruce Springsteen’s lead by cancelling a scheduled show in protest against an “incomprehensible” anti-LGBT law that allows businesses in the state of Mississippi to refuse to serve gay people, or any section of society that offends a “sincerely held religious belief”.
The star, on tour promoting his new album Get Up!, announced on Sunday that he’s scrapping his show at Biloxi’s Mississippi Coast Coliseum on Thursday (April 14th) in protest at the ‘Religious Liberty’ bill 1523 being signed into law by the state recently. It allows not only religiously-affiliated organisations but also individuals, state employees and businesses to refuse to serve any other individual who somehow offends a religious sensibility.
Bryan Adams leaving BBC Radio 2 in 2015
Adams, 56, wrote on his social media pages over the weekend that he “cannot in good conscience perform in a State where certain people are being denied their civil rights due to their sexual orientation.”
More: Bruce Springsteen branded a “bully” for boycotting North Carolina over LGBTQ prejudice
The bill was passed last week and takes effect in law in July 2016. The rocker continued: “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.”
The stance is similar to that of fellow rock star Bruce Springsteen, who last week announced he was cancelling a show in North Carolina because of a law dictating that transgender individuals must use the public bathrooms of the sex to which they were assigned at birth (not the one with which they identify).
That law had already cost North Carolina a piece of serious business, with PayPal announcing it would be scrapping plans to open a facility in the state that would have brought hundreds of jobs to the state.
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