Taylor Swift Pens Open Letter to Tennessee Senator in Support of Equality Act
Taylor Swift penned an open letter to one of her state’s senators supporting the Equality Act that would protect the LGBTQ community from discrimination in the workplace and in schools, and in doing so rejected “the President’s stance” on the matter.
“While we have so much to celebrate, we also have a great distance to go before everyone in this country is truly treated equally,” Swift wrote on Instagram Friday. “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.”
In her letter to Senator Lamar Alexander, Swift voiced her support for the Equality Act and why it should be passed before the Senate, where the bill is headed to next. If the bill passes there, it would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
“For American citizens to be denied jobs or housing based on who they love or how they identify, is my opinion, is un-American and cruel,” she wrote. “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.”
Swift’s comments come on the heel of Trump’s Twitter statement Friday in which he wrote: “As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation. My Administration has launched a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality and invite all nations to join us in this effort!”
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The 29-year-old “ME!” singer doesn’t agree with Trump’s take on his administration. “I personally reject the 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 undermine parental and conscience rights. No,'” she wrote. “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 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 or daughters.”
Swift also created a Change.org petition to “urge the Senate to support the Equality Act.”
“I respect your position in our country and your ability to really impact positive moves forward,” she concluded her 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.”
See Swift’s full post below.
A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on May 31, 2019 at 9:05pm PDT
Read original story Taylor Swift Pens Open Letter to Tennessee Senator in Support of Equality Act At TheWrap
