North Carolina has sustained heavy live music losses since passing the anti-LGBTQ House Bill 2, and Pearl Jam are the latest big act to boycott the state as a result.

Eddie Vedder and company have canceled a concert that was planned for tomorrow (April 20) in Raleigh in response to the law, which allows for workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and forces transgender individuals to use bathrooms designated for the gender printed on their birth certificates.

“This will be upsetting to those who have tickets and you can be assured that we are equally frustrated by the situation,” Pearl Jam wrote in a statement to their website.

The band calls HB2 a “despicable piece of legislation” and promises to contribute funds to local organizations working to “facilitate progress on this issue”:

The HB2 law that was recently passed is a despicable piece of legislation that encourages discrimination against an entire group of American citizens. The practical implications are expansive and its negative impact upon basic human rights is profound. We want America to be a place where no one can be turned away from a business because of who they love or fired from their job for who they are.

We have communicated with local groups and will be providing them with funds to help facilitate progress on this issue.

When that progress is made, Pearl Jam look forward to returning to North Carolina. “In the meantime we will be watching with hope and waiting in line for a time when we can return,” the band writes.

Pearl Jam follows in the footsteps of Bruce Springsteen and Ringo Starr, who have also canceled shows in North Carolina. Some artists, however, have chosen to uphold their touring plans in the state. Against Me! will still play their show in Durham in May as a “form of protest” against the law, and Mumford and Sons donated all the proceeds from their concert in Charlotte last week to local LGBTQ organizations.

Pearl Jam
PearlJam.com
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