A number of top-level celebrities are reportedly following in Stevie Wonder’s footsteps and plan to boycott Florida in protest of the state’s “Stand Your Ground” laws. The list, which was first reported by AURN’s April Ryan and credited a “a source close to Wonder,” includes the likes of Madonna, Usher, Kanye West, Jay Z, Rihanna and Rod Stewart.
Wonder announced his intention to boycott any state with “Stand Your Ground” laws after George Zimmerman after a jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the 2012 killing of unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman did not invoke the “Stand Your Ground” defense in the trial, though it did figure into the police’s decision not to not arrest Zimmerman for weeks after the incident. Additionally, the “Stand Your Ground” defense appeared in instructions to jurors, and a juror cited the law in explaining the not-guilty verdict.
“I decided today that until the ‘Stand Your Ground’ law is abolished in Florida, I will never perform there again,” Wonder said at a concert in Quebec City. “As a matter of fact, wherever I find that law exists, I will not perform in that state or in that part of the world
