You Don’t Usually Think Of Her As An Activist

I don’t think of Dolly Parton as an activist but she is and activist for LGBT people.

Flashback: See Dolly Parton Stand for Transgender Equality
"Travelin' Thru" earned Oscar nod, hate mail for outspoken icon in 2006
Rolling Stone
By Stephen L. Betts
January 31, 2017

As a performer and songwriter, Dolly Parton has long been an outspoken advocate at the forefront of controversial issues. As far back as 1991, at the height of the AIDS crisis, her Eagle When She Flies LP included the song, "Family," which noted, rather matter-of-factly, that some families include members who are gay - a simple, yet bold step at the time.

In 2006, Parton embraced and encouraged inclusion by writing the theme tune for Transamerica, a big-screen film about a pre-operative transgender woman meeting and traveling cross-country with the son she never knew. It may have been a risky proposition for a Hollywood film, and perhaps even more so for a country icon, but Parton took it all in stride, in spite of revealing to USA Today at the time that her support of the LGBT community has subjected her to hate mail.
[…]
In a somewhat prescient bit of movie magic, just five years later Parton would appear in another LGBT-inclusive feature called Hollywood to Dollywood, a documentary film about gay twin brothers Gary and Larry Lane, who traveled from their home in L.A. to Parton's Smoky Mountains theme park to hand-deliver a screenplay they had written with her in mind. She has continued to champion LGBT rights and in the wake of North Carolina's controversial, so-called "bathroom bill" – which forced transgender individuals to use restrooms associated with their gender assigned at birth – Parton posted a video in which she said, "I think everybody should be treated with respect. I don't judge people. I try not to get too caught up in all the controversy of things. I hope that everybody gets a chance to be who and what they are."

Hopefully she will continue to speak up for up during the Trump administration.

I am going to give her the benefit of the doubt why she didn't cancel her performance in North Carolina, maybe she felt she could do more good by holding the concert or maybe there were legal obligations.