Farawayhills
Well-known member
Jennifer has given a powerful (and, from the viewpoint of the Country Music community, particularly significant) speech, to the Nashville Chapter of the Human Rights Campaign, an organization set up in the 1980s to fight for equal legal and social treatment for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identification.
(As this has been a difficult and divisive area for some, I'll try to give some brief context to her remarks:
1. The early careers of the future members of Sugarland were linked to the club scene in Atlanta and Decatur, where there was a significant Gay following for the music, and the group itself was founded in the musical ambit of the Indigo Girls, who have had a long and eloquent association with this cause - so Jennifer's views on equality are long established.
2. Nevertheless, her speech is one of the strongest and most thoughtfully detailed, to gain public notice, from any leading figure in the Country genre so far
3. The organization she is addressing is made up of LBGT activists and their allies - but it aims to be non-partisan, and has endorsed both Republican and Democrat candidates.
4. Jennifer makes the point that the equality she is advocating doesn't have to be Liberal or Conservative, a matter of right or wrong, or of pointing fingers at people's views - but is a matter of the status and treatment of all citizens in society. She uses the phrase "a bridge of grace").
I'm not sure whether the full speech is, or will be, available on line - but clips have been posted, and you can see parts of it in this tweet:
https://twitter.com/amym1972/status/1102223706447843328
(The part where Jennifer calls specifically on the Country community to make their voices heard, and refers briefly to the photo of a Gay couple that Carrie posted on Instagram, comes in Clip 4)
(As this has been a difficult and divisive area for some, I'll try to give some brief context to her remarks:
1. The early careers of the future members of Sugarland were linked to the club scene in Atlanta and Decatur, where there was a significant Gay following for the music, and the group itself was founded in the musical ambit of the Indigo Girls, who have had a long and eloquent association with this cause - so Jennifer's views on equality are long established.
2. Nevertheless, her speech is one of the strongest and most thoughtfully detailed, to gain public notice, from any leading figure in the Country genre so far
3. The organization she is addressing is made up of LBGT activists and their allies - but it aims to be non-partisan, and has endorsed both Republican and Democrat candidates.
4. Jennifer makes the point that the equality she is advocating doesn't have to be Liberal or Conservative, a matter of right or wrong, or of pointing fingers at people's views - but is a matter of the status and treatment of all citizens in society. She uses the phrase "a bridge of grace").
I'm not sure whether the full speech is, or will be, available on line - but clips have been posted, and you can see parts of it in this tweet:
https://twitter.com/amym1972/status/1102223706447843328
(The part where Jennifer calls specifically on the Country community to make their voices heard, and refers briefly to the photo of a Gay couple that Carrie posted on Instagram, comes in Clip 4)