Taylor Swift reminded her fans that it’s important to stay active in political issues. The “ME!” pop icon posted a letter she wrote to a Tennessee Senator that urges him to pass the Equality Act, a bill which would protect members of the LGBTQ community from discrimination in the workplace. The bill was recently passed by the House and will move to the Senate for a vote.
The pop singer said she rejects the president’s stance that the bill would “undermine parental and conscience rights”, saying it’s “an incredibly harmful message to send to a nation full of healthy and loving families with same-sex, non-binary or transgender parents, sons or daughters.”
Swift outlines the importance of protecting LGBTQ rights and brings up the backlash Tennessee faces if they don’t pass the bill.
“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. I know there are those who say this disrupts their religious freedom, but there are hundreds of Tennessee faith leaders who have recently (and very vocally) disagreed and spoken out to defend the LGBTQ community.”
Swift said a refusal to pass this bill would “cripple” new job prospects in Tennessee.
“The refusal in our own state’s Legislature to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination has the serious potential to cripple us from bringing new jobs to Tennessee. I’m sure you saw where Amazon, and almost a dozen other major companies, said they feel the proposed anti-LGBTQ “Slate of Hate” in Tennessee would negatively affect their ability to do business in Tennessee. Amazon alone is 5,000 potential Tennessee jobs put at risk.”
Swift posted a screenshot of the letter to her social media accounts, positioning it as a celebration of 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,” the caption read. Swift said she “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.” She told her fans to also write letters to their Senators, and that she would read through the hashtag #lettertomysenator.
“Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally,” Swift added. The singer stated she sponsored a petition for the Senate to support the Equality Act.
The Equality Act would amend Title VII to explicitly state that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal. The Equality Act arrives after the Trump administration has rolled back several LGBTQ protections. In 2017, the Department of Justice supported the dismissal of a Title VII claim because “discrimination because of sexual orientation is not discrimination based on sex under Title VII,” according to The Washington Post.
Just a few weeks ago, the Trump administration issued a proposal to roll back Obama-era protections which would make it legal for health care providers to refuse treatment to transgender patients. The proposal would remove the term “gender identity” as a factor of discrimination in heath care. This proposal follows the 2017 ban on transgender people in the military.
