A message from Jack and Fun.
as many of you know, we are currently on the campus consciousness tour (CCT) which is all about raising awareness for LGBTQ rights. we have amazing organizations with us – revel and riot, HRC, the trevor project, freedom to marry, reverb and of course, the ally coalition.
tonight’s show at calvin college was booked before the tour was established as a CCT/LGBTQ rights tour. when the school found out about what would be involved in our show – they came back to us and told us we would not be permitted to bring these groups with us. our immediate reaction was to cancel the show and figure out a way to not disappoint the four thousand fans who bought tickets.
but then we started to think about this more and started to look at the other angles here. we realized that canceling and making a big stink about the entire thing was not only the easiest move, but would also have the least impact. as I’ve written to you all so many times before, fighting for equal rights often means you’ll find yourself in uncomfortable and challenging positions. today is perfect example and what we’ve come to is this -
we have more of an opportunity to make a difference by playing this show and doing everything we can to change hearts and minds when it comes to LGBTQ rights in a place where we are met with opposition. its easy enough for us to roll into liberal schools on the east coast and celebrate gay rights in a place where anyone who opposes would be ashamed to make it known. believe me, its truly inspiring to have witnessed the incredible support the LGBTQ students are getting in some of the schools we have been to. that is unfortunately not the case at calvin college. for that reason alone we see it as even more vital for us to show up and be proud.
so this is how will we make our voice heard without the CCT/LGBTQ village with us:
- we are holding a panel at the school in which we will discuss all of this with 300 students
- we will have as much information as possible at our merchandise table, which is a place that cannot be censored
- we have the microphone! our stance WILL be heard
- we are donating $1 from every ticket sold tonight to the ally coalition.
today we are looking forwarded to celebrating with all open minded people and challenging all those who are not.
we started TAC to inspire ALL people to support each other regardless of where we are coming from. TAC is about opening the conversation even when (and especially if) it’s with folk’s who don’t agree. tonight we will stand proudly will the LGBTQ community and all the straight allies at calvin.
