- Just after midnight on June 1, Taylor Swift kicked off Pride Month with a call to support the Equality Act.
- The superstar sent a tweet with the hashtag "#lettertomysenator."
- Attached was a letter she wrote to Sen. Lamar Alexander a Republican from Tennessee, where Swift is registered to vote, and a link to a Change.org petition to support the Equality Act.
- The Equality Act was passed in the House of Representatives in May, and it would extend civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ persons.
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Just after midnight on June 1, Taylor Swift kicked off Pride Month with a call to support the Equality Act.
The superstar sent a tweet with the hashtag "#lettertomysenator." Attached to the tweet was a letter she wrote to Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, where Swift is registered to vote; and a link to a Change.org petition to support the Equality Act.
The Equality Act was passed by the House of Representatives in May, and it would extend civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ persons.
"This bill prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, and the jury system," the bill's summary reads. "Specifically, the bill defines and includes sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity among the prohibited categories of discrimination or segregation."
The bill now must be passed by the Republican-controlled Senate, where it faces stiff odds. Despite the fact that 56% of Republican voters support similar laws, according to Vox, Republican lawmakers worry that anti-discrimination laws will infringe on people's religious rights.
"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 reads. "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."
As of writing — roughly 40 minutes after the tweet was sent — the petition had over 10,000 signatures.
"I personally reject the President's [sic] 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 wrote in her letter to Sen. Alexander.
"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,'" Swift added. "The statement implies that there is something morally wrote with being anything other than heterosexual or cis-gender, which is an incredibly harmful message to sent to a nation full of health and loving families with same-sex, non-binary or transgender parents, songs or daughters."
Read more: Taylor Swift continues to get political, telling people they should start voting early in Tennessee
Swift also highlighted that "over 64% of Tennesseans support laws for protection of LGBTQ+ people against discrimination."
She also discussed the potential economic impact on Tennessee, arguing that companies may not want to bring jobs to the state. (She notes that beyond the federal legislation being discussed, the state's legislature has not passed state-specific protections fot LGBTQ+ residents.)
This is not the first time Swift has taken political action — particularly in support of the LGBTQ+ community. In 2018, she published an Instagram post encouraging followers to register to vote in the 2018 midterm elections. She also endorsed Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn's opponent.
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