During the Billboard Music Awards, Demi Lovato seemingly promoted gender neutral bathrooms with the logo on her dress. Now, her BFF Selena Gomez is also taking a stand on the issue. The 23-year-old is set to perform on Tuesday, June 7 in North Carolina, a state where a slew of celebs have previously canceled their performances, given the recent HB2 bill, which blocks cities and counties from passing anti-discrimination laws to protect LGBT individuals. Choosing to not follow in other musicians' footsteps, Gomez is actually keeping her North Carolina tour date. But before you get upset, she makes an excellent point as to why. In a statement to E! News, the "Same Old Love" singer said,
I am very fortunate to have grown up in a home where I learned from an early age that everyone should be treated equally. I went back and forth on whether I should cancel my concert in North Carolina and ultimately I think what is right for me is to move forward with my show and donate a portion of the proceeds to Equality North Carolina and their effort to defeat this act of discrimination.
Gomez's decision is powerful for multiple reasons. First of all, she's making it clear that she supports equality, which is a valuable message to spread to her tons of fans. Plus, by pointing out she's believed in the idea from an early age, it shows it shouldn't be that difficult of a concept to comprehend. Making her response even better, she's actually taking a step to end discrimination: funding the Equality North Carolina organization, which according to its website is "dedicated to securing equal rights and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) North Carolinians." Sure, canceling a concert sends a strong statement, but so does financially backing advocacy work to try and fix this type of bill. It's especially awesome that she's using the concert proceeds to do so.
To top it all off, Gomez is ensuring that gender neutral bathrooms are available at the show. She explained, "I want everyone coming to my show to be welcomed." Isn't that how all concerts should be? You would think she shouldn't have to say that kind of thing, but given such laws, it's sadly necessary. She also added, "I feel like my generation is the most progressive one yet and believe there will be a day soon when laws like HB2 won't even be a consideration." Hopefully she's right; in her response to HB2, she really is illustrating how progressive our generation can be.
While Gomez could have easily canceled her show to prove her point, she chose to flip the script. And in doing so, she conveyed an equally important message against hate or discrimination.
