Taylor Swift penned a letter to Republican senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee to ask for his support in passing the Equality Act when the bill reaches the U.S. Senate.
“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,” Swift wrote to fans in the Instagram caption that accompanied the letter to Alexander.
“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 the letter to Alexander, Swift first praised the senator for co-sponsoring a resolution that would celebrate the centennial of the 19th Amendment – which gave women the right to vote – before warning that Tennessee’s anti-LGBTQ “Slate of Hate” would continue to scare off major corporations like Amazon, Nike and more.
“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,” Swift 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 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, non binary or transgender parents, sons or daughters.”
Swift added in her Instagram caption, “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.” Swift also launched the hashtag #lettertomysenator, which the singer pledged to monitor.
Swift’s letter to Alexander arrives as Pride Month begins June 1st. While Swift stayed apolitical for the majority of her music career to the point of criticism (and speculation), the singer has become more politically active in recent years, including endorsing Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen’s Senate run in 2018; Bredesen ultimately lost to Republican Marsha Blackburn. In April, Swift donated $113,000 to a Tennessee LGBTQ advocacy group.
Swift continued, “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.”
Alexander has not yet responded to Swift’s letter.
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