title:  Bruce Springsteen Just Unleashed His Fury On North Carolina And It Is Glorious
text: Bruce Springsteen has decided to cancel a concert in North Carolina that was scheduled to take place on April 10. Springsteen released a statement on the matter where he explained that the cancellation is a protest against North Carolina s new law that gives people the right to discriminate against LGBT people.The law, HB2, not only legalizes discrimination against LGBT people, it forces businesses and schools to discriminate against them as well. Springsteen joins other big names in the growing boycott against North Carolina. PayPal cancelled their plans to build a massive new operation center in Charlotte. That cost the state 400 skilled jobs.Here is the announcement from Bruce Springsteen.As you, my fans, know I m scheduled to play in Greensboro, North Carolina this Sunday. As we also know, North Carolina has just passed HB2, which the media are referring to as the  bathroom  law. HB2   known officially as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act   dictates which bathrooms transgender people are permitted to use. Just as important, the law also attacks the rights of LGBT citizens to sue when their human rights are violated in the workplace. No other group of North Carolinians faces such a burden. To my mind, it s an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress. Right now, there are many groups, businesses, and individuals in North Carolina working to oppose and overcome these negative developments. Taking all of this into account, I feel that this is a time for me and the band to show solidarity for those freedom fighters. As a result, and with deepest apologies to our dedicated fans in Greensboro, we have canceled our show scheduled for Sunday, April 10th. Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry   which is happening as I write   is one of them. It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards.As Springsteen notes, the media has dubbed the right to discriminate law as a the  bathroom law.  While in this case this attack on individual rights is targeted towards LGBT people, it is actually a continuation of the Republican to erode local democracy.  Preemption laws  like HB2 are a strategy conceived by right-wing think tanks that date back to the 1990 s.The idea behind these laws is to prevent grassroots movements from creating progressive change in local cities. That way activists and organizations who do not have the resources to scale their operations to run statewide campaigns are locked out of the equation.While these boycotts are welcomed, HB2 is simply another iteration of a national strategy to destroy local democracy. In order to create a true resistance movement to these laws is to oust the political regimes that are making them. It ll require nothing short of a political revolution. Until that happens, the only thing progressives can do is play a game of political whack-a-mole.Featured image from (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images) 