Dan Reynolds. Image: Facebook/@ImagineDragons
Dan Reynolds, Imagine Dragons lead singer, received an award for advocating LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) rights.
He received the Hero award from non-profit The Trevor Project which focuses on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youths in the United States.
In his acceptance speech, Reynolds admitted that he had once taught people that being gay is a sin, back when he was a Mormon missionary for two years:
“I knocked on thousands of doors. For those two years when people asked me what the doctrine was and they said, ‘Hey I’m gay,’ I thought that it was a sin because that’s what I had been raised to teach.”
“I hold regret about that until this day. I wish I could re-knock on those doors and tell them I was wrong. I can’t do that,” Reynolds shared. “All I can do is come forward to you today and say I’m sincerely sorry.”
He added that what helped transform his view on homosexuality was someone he loved: “I met this girl and I fell in love with her. When I met her, she was living with her two best friends who were lesbians.”
“My wife was my missionary. She taught me what I already knew in my heart, which was that to be gay is beautiful,” he said.
In a Billboard interview, Reynolds shared that he partnered with progressive Mormons to stage a music festival called “Love Loud” on August 26. The event aims to unite the LGTBQ community with the religious community. Proceeds will support LGBTQ charities. Niña V. Guno/JB
RELATED STORIES:
LGBT celebrates gay pride month in Marikina
LGBT people are human beings too