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Mumford & Sons? Hates North Carolina’s ‘Transgender Bathroom Bill,’ Band Donates To LGBT Organization In Protest

By Stephen Jordan
Published on: 14:51 PST, Apr 14, 2016

Mumford & Sons is performing in North Carolina tonight, on April 14, and the band will donate the profits to a local LGBT organization, reports Fortune. This is in response to North Carolina’s recent HB2 bill, otherwise referred to as the “bathroom bill”/”transgender bathroom bill,” which prohibits transgender people from using the bathroom assigned to the gender they identify with. This bathroom bill instead forces transgender people to use the bathroom assigned to the gender they were born with. Mumford & Sons views this as discrimination and hateful, along with a number of other celebrities who have echoed the same sentiments.

Not only is the LGBT community strongly opposing the HB2 law, viewing it has discrimination against those who are transgender, the bathroom bill is also harmful to the LGBT community’s rights within the workplace. Mumford & Sons took to their Facebook page to let their fans know they will be protesting North Carolina’s bathroom bill.

“As a band that relishes welcoming everyone to our shows and promoting tolerance, we do want to take a stand with the people of North Carolina who this week are shouting loudly against intolerance, fear and discrimination,” the band wrote. As many other celebrities have noted, like Joel McHale and Jimmy Buffet, the bill goes against what Mumford & Sons stands for and believes in.

“Over the years we’ve looked for ways to contribute to the vitality of local communities and, in that spirit, we’re now creating a charitable fund to support those who have made it their mission to pursue love and justice. We will be donating all of our profits from this show to this new fund. And we will start by making a donation from it to a local LGBTQ organization.”

Ever since the passage of the HB2 law, North Carolina has had several major corporations cut ties with the state over the bathroom bill. Transgender people, along with the LGBT community and supporters, disagree with the reasoning as to why the bill was put into place to begin with. North Carolina’s bathroom bill, passed by the General Assembly and signed by Governor Pat McCrory, claims it is attempting to keep women safe by preventing men from entering the ladies restroom. The idea is that a possible predator will dress up as a woman just to sneak into the women’s bathroom and assault someone. The transgender community are singled out in this bill, seemingly because of the notion that one would not be able to tell if it was a transgender person (male to female), or a man simply pretending to be a woman just to gain access to the bathroom.

The bill has been called out as not only discriminatory, but completely illogical. Many suggest that a criminal/predator would not go out of their way to dress up as a woman just to sneak into the women’s bathroom. Furthermore, there was nothing to stop men from being able to do that now even before the bathroom bill came along. Thus, it has been widely regarded as an anti-LGBT law that is purposefully discriminating against transgender people.

Mumford & Sons’ protest against the bathroom bill is just one in a laundry list of celebrities and musicians who have also spoken out about it. Both Bruce Springsteen as well as the Beatles’ Ringo Starr have canceled upcoming North Carolina concerts, due to the discriminatory law. The lead singer of the punk band Against Me!, Laura Jane Grace, came out as transgender in 2012 and has said that she and her group will go ahead with playing their upcoming concert in Durham, North Carolina, “as a form of protest.” And it’s not just happening in North Carolina.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker came under some serious fire and was booed off stage at a Boston networking event for the LGBT community Wednesday night. Rather than tell the crowd that he would vehemently oppose the bill were it ever to come across his desk, he said he would “talk to all parties involved.” That’s when the crowd let him have it.

[Photo by Mauricio Santana/Getty Images]

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