Taylor Swift.Photo: Matt Baron/REX/Shutterstock
Taylor Swiftis using her voice totake a stand for LGBTQ rights.
Shortly before Pride Month officially began on Saturday, the 29-year-old pop star shared a copy of aletter she had writtento Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican, urging him to support the Equality Act, which would prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“While we have so much to celebrate, we also have a great distance to go before everyone in this country is truly treated equally,” Swift told fans, urging them to join her in writing to their own state senators.
“I know there are those who say this disrupts their religious freedom, but there are hundreds of Tennessee faith leaders who have recently (and very vocally) disagreed and spoken out to defend the LGBTQ community,” she wrote.
Swift went on to point out that should Tennessee not support the Equality Act, there could be a devastating financial impact on the state.
“I’m sure you saw where Amazon, and almost a dozen other major companies, said they feel the proposed anti-LGBTQ ‘slate of Hate’ in Tennessee would negatively affect their ability to do business in Tennessee. Amazon alone is 5,000 potential Tennessee jobs put at risk,” she wrote, noting thatdozens of major corporationshad signed an open letter opposing anti-LGBTQ legislation.
“I personally reject the President’s stance that his administration, ‘Supports equal treatment of all,’ but that the Equality Act, ‘in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights,’ ” Swift added. “That statement implies that there is something morally wrong with being anything other than heterosexual and cisgender, which is an incredibly harmful message to send to a nation full of healthy and loving families with same-sex, nonbinary or transgender parents, sons or daughters.”
In conclusion, the singer urged the lawmaker to “please, please think about the lives you could change for the better if you were to vote to support the Equality Act in the Senate and prohibit this harsh and unfair discrimination. I, for one, would be immensely grateful.”
Alongside her powerful note, Swift also shared alink to a petitionurging Senators across the country to support the legislation
As of Saturday morning, the petition was just several thousand signatures away from reaching its goal of 50,000 signatures.
Swift’s actions quickly won the pop star thesupport of GLAAD, who also shared that she had made a “generous donation to support our work and accelerate acceptance for LGBTQ people.”
“Taylor Swiftcontinues to use her platform to speak out against discrimination and create a world where everyone can live the life they love,” GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement toThe Hollywood Reporter. “In today’s divisive political and cultural climate, we need more allies like Taylor, who send positive and uplifting messages to LGBTQ people everywhere.”
Swift firstbroke her silenceon politics last October, when she publicly endorsed two Democratic candidates running in the Tennessee midterm elections.
“I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country,” Swift shared at the time. “I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.”
She also revealed in a recent interview with German outletDPAthat her highly anticipated upcoming seventh studio album will include music with apolitical message.
source: people.com
