Some weeks ago, you might recall there was a controversy in the USA surrounding abortion. It was after a 98-page first draft of an opinion by the country’s Supreme Court was leaked to Politico – it now appears that Politico have their biggest scoop in years after the court made its final ruling yesterday, broadly unchanged from the leaked document.
Ears To The House is not going to get into a detailed discussion on our views on the subject of abortion – but we’ll simply say most of us are neither pro-abortion or anti-abortion. We just believe it’s one of those things some women need to avail of during their lives, and that any attempt to curtail or expand the right should be primarily decided on the basis of science.
But will DJs now vote with their feet and refuse to play in states which decide to ban abortions? The signs are not exactly promising – this, remember, is a scene where there was an almost total moral blindness last year at the prospect of DJs playing for MDL Beast Soundstorm, a festival paid for by the blood-soaked Saudi Arabian state.
As we’d be here for days going through all fifty states, we’ll concentrate on two for the time being in this article. Visiting the ever-useful EDM Train website tells us who’s performing in what state and when. For example, Texas has appearances from Afrojack, Green Velvet, Lauren Flax, Todd Edwards, MK, deadmau5 and Nicole Moudaber coming up in the next few weeks.
A quick look on Instagram reveals some of them have expressed their thoughts on the matter. Lauren Flax referenced an account called Thank God For Abortion, Nicole Moudaber commented that “it’s a sad day for America”, and MK shared a statement by Michelle Obama on the subject. So will they be cancelling their gigs in Texas now, seeing that abortion will be illegal there within the next few weeks?
Let’s take a look at one more state – Florida. Scheduled to play between now and the end of July are Joris Voorn, Dennis Ferrer, Maya Jane Coles, Paul Woolford, Hannah Wants and CamelPhat, to name a few. Woolford shared a story quoting a tweet comparing the Supreme Court’s attitude to abortion and gun laws, whilst Hannah Wants shared a story with a video – the full version can be found here.
Now, no one is saying DJs should not play in a country where they disagree with a policy. If this was the case, most DJs couldn’t even play in their home countries, let alone head abroad. But when they feel as strongly as they appear to on this subject, the question surely must be asked.
This is not without precedent, even in these morally bankrupt times. For instance, Ukrainian DJ Nastia has cancelled a number of gigs recently due to the fact she would have had to appear alongside Russians with rather ambiguous stances on the war ongoing in her homeland. Ears To The House understands this would have lost her a high five figure sum – but Nastia decided her principles were more important than money.
How many of the other DJs above with such strong feelings on the subject are prepared to do the same thing?
