Over the past weekend, bands united for Welcome to Rockville in Jacksonville, Florida. Acts like Korn, Evanescene, Rob Zombie, Tool, Incubus, Papa Roach and more rocked the venue for 3 days.
Of course all the stages were rocking and we’re sure people were enjoying themselves with all the great music. One performer decided to use a little bit of the attention he had from Florida concert goers that may have been following him on his Instagram, along with his other 752,000 Insta-followers to support our LGBT community.
Tom Morello, guitarist for Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave posted a photo on Instagram with a caption about transgender rights and a new Florida anti-immigration law.
The Instagram statement was:
“Florida! It was our pleasure to rock you. There are a number of critical challenges facing Florida RIGHT NOW that you can help fix.
Florida is home to a vibrant and diverse immigrant community, yet last night, the Florida Legislature passed a cruel and discriminatory anti-immigrant bill, SB 168, that will tear families apart. Immigrants, communities of color and U.S. citizens will be impacted by this law. I know Floridians are resilient and will continue to fight back against these attempts to undermine civil rights.
Deadly violence against Transgender people is on the rise and especially for Trans women of color. In Jacksonville, four Black transgender women were killed in 2018. We need to do more to protect Transgender people in our country.
We applaud allies when they bring attention to our issues in any way possible. They sometimes do better at it than we do ourselves. Thanks again Tom for using your star power to help make people aware that transgender lives are being lost and that we ALL need to do more.
The discriminatory anti-immigrant bill, SB 168, mentioned was summarized well by the Tallahassee Democrat:
Florida’s legislature is moving fast on a bill, SB 168, that requires local communities and police to do the job of the federal government in the deportation of immigrants.
It’s a dangerous idea, and disproportionately harms LGBTQ folks.
The bill will increase detention and deportation of immigrants – and with nearly 80 countries criminalizing LGBT people, LGBTQ individuals seek asylum in substantially higher numbers.
Moreover, ICE officers overwhelmingly use their discretion to detain them. One study showed that in 2015, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement held 90% of LGBTQ immigrants, even though its automated risk classification system recommended detention of 18%. – Tallahassee Democrat
Sources: metalheadzone.com , Tallahassee Democrat , jambase.com