Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds took to Twitter to urge religious leaders to denounce harmful gay conversion therapy and accept LGBTQ youth.
Reynolds, who is straight and Mormon, has been a vocal ally to the LGBTQ community, and established the Love Loud music festival which benefits LGBTQ charities and brings attention to youth suicide.
Last September, Reynolds and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon blasted Eminem for continuing to use anti-gay slurs in his lyrics.
Tweeted Reynolds: “I plead with our religious leaders across the world to stand up for equality together. true equality – not empty words of love – but statements and actions thats show our LGBTQ youth that they are “sinless” and perfect just as they are. Until these changes are made within the doctrines of orthodox faith, we will continue to see increased rates of suicidality and depression/anxiety amongst our LGBTQ youth.”
Reynolds continued: “It is a false notion that LGBTQ youth are more likely to have emotional vulnerabilities because of who they are/how their brains are programmed. The truth is that the leaders of our communities have created societal rules that leave no room for our LGBTQ youth to be healthy. It is a flawed system, not a flawed individual. Until the leaders of all orthodox faiths denounce conversion therapy and accept our LGBTQ youth into full fellowship I believe we will continue to see a great exodus from all orthodox faith. We are not a generation that will stand for intolerance, homophobia or racism.”
Reynolds concluded: “And to those that say the simple answer is for our youth to just leave religion – it isn't that simple. many of these LGBTQ youth will be kicked out of the home and put into a more dangerous situation if they denounce the faith of their family. Also many find peace in their faith. they love it. it brings them comfort in a sad and oftentimes scary world. It is now up to our leaders to LEAD. How many more children will be lose before we practice true love in our churches?”
