Taylor Swift Urges Tennessee Senator for LGBTQ Protections
When Taylor Swift comes to mind, you probably think more of catchy tunes and girl squads than politics and rights for underrepresented groups. But recently,w Swift has decided to use her massive influence for more than just selling out stadiums and topping the charts.
This week, the pop star wrote a letter to Tennessee’s Senator Lamar Alexandar asking him to support the Equality Act.
What did the letter say?
In a lengthy letter, which Swift posted to Twitter on Friday, the singer laid out the rights that LGBTQ people have been fighting so hard to receive.
“I’m writing to you today in anticipation of a very important vote coming up,” she wrote. “As you know, the House just passed the Equality Act, which would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in the workplace, in their homes and in schools. For American citizens to be denied jobs or housing based on who they love or how they identify, in my opinion, is un-American and cruel.”
As her home state, Swift felt that Tennessee had an obligation to it’s residents to protect them.
“The refusal in our own State’s legislature to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination has the serious potential to cripple us from bringing new jobs to Tennessee.”
“I personally reject this 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 determine parental and conscience rights.’”
“No, one cannot take the position that one supports a community, while condemning it in the next breath as going against ‘conscience’ or ‘parental rights.’ That statement implies that there is something morally wrong with you being anything other than heterosexual or cisgender, which is an incredibly harmful letter to send to a nation full of healthy and loving families with same-sex, non-binary or transgender parents, sons or daughters.”
In addition to posting her letter, Swift also linked to an online petition to get people to support the Equality Act.
“HAPPY PRIDE MONTH,” the bio for the petition reads. “While we have so much to celebrate, we also have a great distance to go before everyone in this country is truly treated equally. In excellent recent news, the House has passed the Equality Act, which would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in their places of work, homes, schools, and other public accommodations. The next step is that the bill will go before the Senate.”
“While there’s no information yet as to when the Equality Act will go before the Senate for a vote, we do know this: Politicians need votes to stay in office,” the petition continues. “Votes come from the people. Pressure from massive amounts of people is a major way to push politicians towards positive change. That’s why I’ve created this petition to urge the Senate to support the Equality Act.
The petition currently has over 35,000 signatures out of its 50,000 signature goal.
Swift’s political music
For years, Swift has stayed away from discussing anything political. But in the current climate, she is starting to speak up more and more.
In an interview with RTL, she recently announced that her new album will have a political edge to it.
“I definitely think there are political undertones in the new music I made,” she said. “I’m not planning to stop encouraging young people to vote and to get them to talk about what’s going on in our country. I think that’s one of the most important things I could do.”
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