Hulu’s recent documentary, ‘Imagine Dragons Live In Vegas,’ featured a section from the band’s performance at Allegiant Stadium last September, where the band played ‘It’s Time.’
While performing the song, vocalist Dan Reynolds noticed a fan holding the Progress Pride Flag. Reacting to this, he lifted the flag and continued singing as he moved down the stage’s runway.
Reynolds’ on-stage recognition of the flag is one of the many cases where he has shown support for the LGBTQ+ community. Among his other efforts, he started projects like the annual LoveLoud Festival.
But there used to be times the singer held back from backing up the community due to his Mormon background. In fact, he even talked about it in his film ‘Believer’ in 2018.
Recalling his past approach to LGBTQ+ people, Reynolds expressed regret in the documentary by saying:
“I feel guilt. I feel like I’m standing for bigotry.”
Then, the film showed a video of the Imagine Dragons frontman apologizing for the past during a speech at the 2017 Hero Award from The Trevor Project. In one part of the talk, he teared up and told the audience:
“I hold regret about it to this day. I wish I could re-knock on all those doors and tell them I was wrong.”
Throughout ‘Believer,’ Dan Reynolds also touched on the conflict between his religious upbringing and views on LGBTQ+. At some point, he explained:
“I knew that this was something that I’ve been holding back on for fear of creating a strain with family or friends or my culture, my community. I just think that’s not the way to live your life. If it offends people, even if it destroys relationships, I think it’s more important that you live a life expressing your truths and trying to perpetuate change for what you believe in than to live a quiet life of indifference.”
Over the years, the vocalist reached out to the members of the community through different platforms. For example, on June 2018, he wrote a letter to them for Billboard.
He also created songs for them, like the 2018 track ‘Love’ from the ‘Origins’ album. You can listen to it in the video below.