Singer John Legend wants the Sultan of Brunei to change his tune on LGBT and women's rights.
R&B singer John Legend is talking a hard line against discrimination and
standing up for LGBT and women's rights this week:
“John Legend will not be attending the LA Confidential party … in light of the horrific anti-women and anti-LGBT policies approved by the hotel’s owner, the Sultan of Brunei,” Legend’s publicity representative Amanda Silverman told the Hollywood Reporter. “These policies, which among other things could permit women and LGBT Bruneians to be stoned to death, are heinous and certainly don’t represent John’s values or the spirit of the event.” Legend often voices his opinions on social justice and civil rights on Twitter, commenting passionately and engaging with other users.
Ms. Magazine brought the issues to their readers
last spring:
“We cannot hold a human rights and women’s rights event at a hotel whose owner would institute a penal code that fundamentally violates women’s rights and human rights,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation (and publisher of Ms.).
One of the most disquieting of the new codes calls for gay men and lesbians and people convicted of adultery to be stoned to death. Another permits the public flogging of women who have abortions, and a third would jail women who become pregnant outside of marriage.
“Kill-a-gay’ laws, or laws that allow the flogging of women for abortion, violate international law and have no place in civilized society,” say Feminist Majority Foundation board member Mavis Leno.
John Legend joins a growing list of celebrities pledging to boycott hotels
owned by the Sultan of Brunei:
The hotel boycott is supported by Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Sharon Osbourne, Jay Leno, Richard Branson, Dreamworks executive Jeffrey Katzenberg and gay-rights organizations like GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign, to name a few.