Fans don’t have to wait for a new album to hear from the new, political Taylor Swift. To kick off Pride month, Swift wrote a letter to her senator in support of the Equality Act, and is asking her fans to do the same.
The bill, which passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last month, is an amendment to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. It protects LGBTQ+ people against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in the workplace, housing, jury selection, and public accommodations.
The bill now needs to go before the Senate, and Swift has created a Change.org petition to urge Congress to pass it.
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“Our country’s lack of protection for its own citizens ensures that LGBTQ people must live in fear that their lives could be turned upside down by an employer or landlord who is homophobic or transphobic,” Swift wrote on Instagram. “The fact that, legally, some people are completely at the mercy of the hatred and bigotry of others is disgusting and unacceptable.”
She went on to say, “Pressure from massive amounts of people is a major way to push politicians towards positive change,” which is why she started the campaign. It already has more than 45,000 signatures in less than 12 hours after its launch.
In addition to signing the petition, she is asking supporters to write letters to their senators explaining why the Equality Act should be passed. Swift already wrote her letter to Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. In it, Swift mentions how not protecting the LBGTQ+ community in Tennessee directly affects the economy, saying that it has the “serious potential to cripple us from bringing new jobs to Tennessee.” She mentioned how large companies such as Amazon who have the potential to bring 5,000 new jobs to the area are being turned off by the “Slate of Hate” anti-LGBTQ+ bills state legislators have proposed.
Swift also spoke out against President Donald Trump directly, saying his assertion that the act is full of "poison pills" is damaging.
“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, and daughters,” she said.
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Her words are resonating with supporters. Many people on the Change.org page are agreeing with Swift and thanking her for using her platform to promote change.
“Every person deserves respect and equality and should not be discriminated over something that is out of their control like gender, sexual orientation, and anything else that is a part of who they are,” one person wrote.
Another person said, “It’s important that everyone is treated equally and that everyone gets their rights! We need to help protect the ones that have been looked down upon and bring them up and treat them equally.”
Swift has consistently been an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. Earlier this year, she donated $113,000 USD to the Tennessee Equality Project, a nonprofit LGBTQ+ advocacy group that lobbies against discriminatory bills.
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