Imagine Dragons call for conversion therapy ban during BBMAs speech
Imagine Dragons took home the award for Top Rock Artist at the Billboard Music Awards, and took their speech to shed light to LGBT issues.
They were announced as winners and immediately discussed the problems with conversion therapy and encouraged people to get involved in political issues.
Read more: Halsey dances through passionate “Without Me” performance at BBMAs
“I just want to take this moment to say there are 34 states that still have no laws against conversion therapy,” lead singer Dan Reynolds said. “On top of that, 58 percent of our LGBTQ population live in those states.”
“This could change but it’s going to take all of us talking to our state legislation, pushing forward laws to protect our LGBTQ youth,” he continued. “We’ve 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.”
You can see the full speech below.
.@Imaginedragons take home this year’s #BBMAs Top Rock Artist! ? pic.twitter.com/Zwnfh2nHme
— Billboard Music Awards (@BBMAs) May 2, 2019
See how people reacted to the speech below.
The speech tho ??
— Carl Harriot (@flickercarl) May 2, 2019
sad that panic didn’t win, but congratulations regardless. i loved the speech about how wrong conversion therapy is??
— kendall misses panic!? (@kgmmcc13) May 2, 2019
Me, after watching Imagine Dragon’s speech: #BBMAs pic.twitter.com/VPB2WMzWdb
— Vena (@zoaxert) May 2, 2019
halsey’s wlw performance and imagine dragon’s speech….god the bbmas are looking better this year
— ?? (@jeongguah) May 2, 2019
Imagine Dragons beat out Panic! At The Disco, Queen, twenty one pilots and lovelytheband for the award. You can see the whole list of winners here.
In case you missed it, P!ATD frontman Brendon Urie opened the show with the live debut of his collab “ME!” with Taylor Swift. You can see a video of that below.
Kicking off the #BBMAs with a bang thanks to @taylorswift13 and @brendonurie! Who are you most excited to see?
Watch the #BBMAs LIVE on @9Now! pic.twitter.com/dKdMZXtLnA
— 9Now (@9Now) May 2, 2019
What did you think of Imagine Dragons’ speech? Sound off in the comments below!
See more: 10 surprising artists you won’t believe appeared on AP’s cover
[envira-gallery id=”194356″]
