Taylor Swift Kicks Off Pride Month With Letter Supporting Pro-LGBTQ Equality Act

Anita Bennett

Taylor Swift is speaking out in support of LGBTQ rights.

The singer kicked off Pride Month Friday night, by sharing a letter she wrote to one of her senators, urging him to support the Equality Act, which would prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

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“Happy Pride month!!!” Swift wrote on Instagram. “While we have so much to celebrate, we also have a great distance to go before everyone in this country is truly treated equally.”

The singer noted that the legislation had already passed in the Democratic-controlled U.S. House, and shared a letter she sent Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, asking him to vote yes as well.

“I’m writing to you today in anticipation of a very important vote coming up,” the letter said. “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.”

Swift went on to reject President Trump’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.'”

“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,'” she added. “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.”

The singer signed the letter, “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.”

View this post on Instagram

🌈HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!🌈 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. I’ve decided to kick off Pride Month by writing a letter to one of my senators to explain how strongly I feel that the Equality Act should be passed. I urge you to write to your senators too. I’ll be looking for your letters by searching the hashtag #lettertomysenator. 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. 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 a petition at change.org to urge the Senate to support the Equality Act. 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. The fact that, legally, some people are completely at the mercy of the hatred and bigotry of others is disgusting and unacceptable. Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally. 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈 Click the link in my bio to sign the petition for Senate support of the Equality Act.

A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on May 31, 2019 at 9:05pm PDT

Swift also encouraged fans to write their senators, and to sign a Change.org petition she started backing the Equality Act. As of Saturday afternoon, the petition had more than 65,0000 signatures and was near its goal of 75,000.

GLAAD thanked the singer on Twitter, and said she had made a “generous donation” to the LGTBQ rights organization.

“Thank you @taylorswift for kicking off #PrideMonth by speaking out for the Equality Act and by making a generous donation to support our work to accelerate acceptance for LGBTQ people. We 💙 you,” GLAAD captioned its post.

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