Pride Month Is Off To A Heartfelt Start With A Speech From Taylor Swift

After her show Saturday night, Taylor Swift joins the ranks of world renowned artists making their support of the LGBTQ+ community known during Pride Month.

While performing in Chicago as part of her Reputation tour, Taylor Swift, complete in a rainbow dress, made a heartfelt speech expressing her support and respect for the LGBTQ+ members of her audience, saying, “It’s very brave to be vulnerable about your feelings in any sense, in any situation. But it’s even more brave to be honest about your feelings and who you love and that you know that that might be met with adversity from society.” The packed arena of fans burst into cheers. Swift continued by declaring her love for “everyone who has been brave enough to be honest about the way they feel.” With each declaration, her fans grew louder.

Pride Month is a time to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and what it has accomplished for equality, and Swift made a point of reminding her fans that her respect and appreciation spans further than a single month. "So this month and every month I want to send out my love and respect to everybody who has been brave enough to be honest about the way they feel, to live their lives as they are, as they feel they should be, as they identify,” said Swift.

While celebrating how far society has come in its acceptance of all sexualities and identities, Swift reminded the packed stadium that there is still much further to go before equality is realised. As someone who has built her career writing and singing about love and relationships, it is especially touching for Swift to celebrate everyone’s right to have those same love stories with whomever they choose. Her songs are truly for everyone. This year, Swift has become more intentional about sharing her opinions publicly, and her fans love her more for it. From her calling out sexism, to demanding gun reform, to showing her love for all her fans, this new and more vocal Swift is the pop star we need.

"And I want to send my love and respect out to everybody who in their journey hasn’t yet felt comfortable enough to come out and may you do that in your own time,” Swift added. With as many young fans as she has, there are undoubtedly so many who needed to hear that.

In that moment, she dedicated one of the hits from her album Reputation to her LGBTQ+ audience. “May we end up in a world where everyone can live and love equally and no one has to be afraid to be vulnerable and say how they feel,” said Swift before singing her song “Delicate.”