Dan Reynolds LOVELOUD, LGBTQ suicide

Mormon Imagine Dragons Singer’s LOVELOUD Festival Celebrates LGBTQ Community

Dan Reynolds LOVELOUD, LGBTQ suicide
By Sven-Sebastian Sajak (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
The LOVELOUD Music Festival is scheduled to be held August 26.

Dan Reynolds, Imagine Dragons’ lead singer, at one time served religious missions for The LDS Church[/tweetit]. During those days, he and his religious colleagues had awkward conversations on the subject of LGBTQ issues. When a person would show acceptance for homosexuality, the future singer gave them a pamphlet touting the opposite. Reminiscing on those days, he said his views have changed on LGBTQ issues. He now accepts homosexuality even though he remains a Mormon.

Mormon Imagine Dragons Singer’s LOVELOUD Festival Celebrates LGBTQ Community[/tweetthis]

For Reynolds, his personal interest is more towards the LGBTQ youth in Utah. The state has seen a spate of suicides in the community higher which are higher than the national average. This is the reason he will participate in a festival dedicated exclusively to the celebration of love for the LGBTQ community, LOVELOUD Music Festival.

The LOVELOUD festival is scheduled to happen on August 26, at the baseball stadium of Utah Valley University. This festival is happening after many years of Reynolds’ contentious role in the crossroads of religion and advocacy. The singer's popularity among the gay community soared after Glee, the TV series, featured the song, “It's Time” by Imagine Dragons. The hit song was aired during a romantic scene between two gay characters. Gay fans soon began to send letters to the singer complimenting his singing prowess. They also expressed concern about Reynolds' devotion to a religion which has offered conflicting viewpoints on their sexual orientation.

In an interview with Billboard, Reynolds said, “it was devastating and it broke my heart to get letters like that.” From that time on, the singer has joined the advocacy community. He took part in The Trevor Project. The latter is a United States wide suicide prevention hotline aimed squarely towards the LGBTQ youth.

Reynolds is currently putting together a documentary film. The film will concentrate on suicides among the LGBTQ Utah youth who are members of the Mormon Church. These suicides happen for a number of reasons. A few of them include church guidelines like same-sex couples becoming apostates to the church. Another huge hurdle is children of same-sex couples could not be baptized until they reach 18 years of age. These children must renounce the homosexual lifestyle if they want to join Mormonism.

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