In canceling NC show, the Boss hits all the right notes of support

I am grateful to be an out and proud musician in the Triangle, but even on progressive scenes, the hyper-masculine culture keeps many talented people in the closet or off the stage entirely. If I had not downloaded “Thunder Road” in middle school, I might still be one of those people. I have Bruce Springsteen to thank for revealing to me my possibilities.

Teenage me: earbuds in, eyes closed and drowning out hurtful words from loved ones with the revelations of songs like “Badlands” and “Trapped.” Those were the memories that rushed back as I read Springsteen’s statement on his decision to cancel his Greensboro appearance over House Bill 2. It is a beautiful piece of rhetoric: humble and self-effacing, not even requiring fighting words in its demand for justice.

The tears I shed as I was transported back to those nights felt familiar in my eyes, but they were the furthest thing from sad.

Among rock musicians of his generation, Springsteen has been ahead of his peers in public support for LGBTQ people. He was one the first of his stature to sit for an interview with the Advocate, the largest LGBT magazine in the United States. The video for his song “Tougher than the Rest” even features a montage of gay and lesbian couples alongside straight ones. That was five years before his musical contribution to 1993’s groundbreaking film “Philadelphia.”

Over the course of his five decades in music, Springsteen has played many benefits for progressive causes but also canceled and refused shows where such action could have benefited causes in a different way.

I know a lot of ticket-holders were angry and frustrated. I am, however, rather amused by the idea that Springsteen was “punishing his fans” by this action. Once a record goes out into the world, a fan can take whatever he wants from the material, but a live performance belongs to the artist. It is the artist’s opportunity to reinfuse a work with his own humanity and engage the audience in its mission if there is one.

No one can deny Springsteen has a mission. He has spent a career, in his own words, “judging the distance between the American Dream and the American reality.” I invite distraught ticket-holders to judge their own proximity to the fight to repeal HB2 and other fights for the well-being of their communities. I invite them to judge how the distance obscures the enormous power they have to make a difference.

In principle, Springsteen’s decision to disrupt the weekend plans of thousands of his own fans is tactically similar to Black Lives Matter activists blocking traffic or university students occupying campus administration buildings. The difference is merely in the distance between activists from marginalized communities taking power from systems and powerful figures like Springsteen who dare to forsake their great privilege in order to disrupt systems. If we filled the space in between with other courageous and fair minds, we might see justice roll down like water as Martin Luther King Jr. foretold.

Our state is lucky that Springsteen’s unique place at the intersection of art, celebrity and privilege reaffirmed a sense of social responsibility rather than decimated it. If we cannot win this fight solely by appealing to equality and justice, then those who can speak with their wallets must. Some like Springsteen may choose to do so by keeping them closed, but that is not the only way. High-profile artists coming to North Carolina in the coming weeks could leave a significant portion of their fees with North Carolina-based organizations doing the hard work of repealing this discriminatory blight.

I have seen some cry, “Music, not politics!” I began writing music seriously because Bruce Springsteen made me feel seen. My ability to believe I could be a viable creator as a gay man is, in every conceivable way, a function of politics. The one thing North Carolina’s LGBTQ creatives and our communities at-large cannot afford is for anyone with an avowed commitment to equality to turn a blind eye to this moment. Thanks for having our back, Boss! Now other artists have a decision to make.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 4:55 PM with the headline "In canceling NC show, the Boss hits all the right notes of support."