The 2019 Billboard Music Awards aired on May 1. The host for the NBC broadcast, Kelly Clarkson, presided over a politics-free award ceremony, with only one exception. How refreshing since most of the award shows are riddled with political lecturing by our Hollywood betters.
Politics entered the evening’s ceremony only twenty-five minutes into the broadcast. Imagine Dragons won the Top Rock Artist category. Lead singer Dan Reynolds accepted the award and launched into a speech about the dangers of conversion therapy to the LGBTQ community. He told the audience 34 states do not have laws banning conversion therapy so they should contact their state legislators to pass such legislation.
Thank you. Thank you guys very much. Thank you. I just want to take this moment to say there are still 34 states that have no laws banning conversion therapy, 34. And on top of that, on top of that, 58% of our LGBTQ population live in those states. This can change. This can change, but it's going to take all of us talking to our state legislation, pushing forward laws to protect our LGBTQ youth. And lastly, I just want to say, we have seen with conversion therapy that our LGBTQ youth have double the rate of depression, triple the rate of suicide after conversion therapy. It’s not working. It needs to change. Thank you, guys.
Frankly, I didn’t realize that this is a hot issue right now in state legislatures. Turns out, it is being debated in my own state of Texas. Fortunately, the speech by the band singer was brief and the rest of the broadcast was politics-free.
