Taylor Swift Will get Political As She “Personally Rejects” President Trump’s Stance on Equality Act

Taylor Swift is kicking off 2019 Delight Month with a really political message.

The 29-year-old singer took to Instagram on Saturday and posted a photograph of a letter that she wrote to Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican from her dwelling state of Tennessee. Swift wrote at size concerning the Equality Act, which was handed within the Home of Representatives on Could 17.

The Equality Act would offer sweeping protections for LGBTQ individuals. The invoice itself “defines and contains intercourse, sexual orientation, and gender id among the many prohibited classes of discrimination or segregation.”

Each Swift’s letter to Sen. Alexander and her caption clarify why she is imploring her followers to become involved and signal a change.org petition that she created to “urge the Senate to assist the Equality Act.” 

Thus far, over 65,000 individuals have signed her petition.

She penned early on within the correspondence, “For Americans to be denied jobs or housing primarily based on who they love or how they establish, in my view, is un-American and merciless.”

After offering some examples about how LGBTQ discrimination within the office may hurt enterprise within the state, she took direct intention at President Donald Trump himself.

“I personally reject the President’s stance that his administration ‘helps equal therapy of all,’ however that the Equality Act, ‘in its present type is crammed with poison capsules that threaten to undermine parental and aware rights,'” she wrote. 

She adopted up that sentence with “No. One can’t take the place that one helps a neighborhood whereas condemning it within the subsequent breath as going towards ‘aware’ or ‘parental rights.'”

Swift started her caption on a really diplomatic notice. 

“Whereas we’ve got a lot to rejoice, we even have an incredible distance to go earlier than everybody on this nation is actually handled equally,” she wrote.

Matt Crossick/PA Wire

The “Delicate” artist defined that she needed to start out off Delight Month this fashion “to clarify how strongly I really feel that the Equality Act needs to be handed.” She instructed her 118 million followers to do the identical and write to their respective  lawmakers.

She added, “Whereas there is no info but as to when the Equality Act will go earlier than the Senate for a vote, we do know this: Politicians want votes to remain in workplace. Votes come from the individuals. Stress from large quantities of individuals is a significant technique to push politicians in the direction of optimistic change.”

Swift wrote, “Our nation’s lack of safety for its personal residents ensures that LGBTQ individuals should stay in concern that their lives may very well be turned the wrong way up by an employer or landlord who’s homophobic or transphobic. The truth that, legally, some individuals are fully on the mercy of the hatred and bigotry of others is disgusting and unacceptable.”

The Equality Act now goes to the Senate, the place it may both go or fail. If the invoice does go within the Senate, it will then head to President Trump’s desk for signature into regulation or he may veto it.

President Trump has taken many steps to attempt to take away protections from the LGBTQ neighborhood, particularly transgender individuals. On Could 24, for example, the Division of Well being and Human Providers proposed a rule that, in line with the Nationwide Heart for Transgender Equality, would “take away all recognition that federal regulation prohibits transgender sufferers from discrimination in well being care.”

Equally, in October, the Trump Administration moved to outline gender as “on a organic foundation that’s clear, grounded in science, goal and administrable.”

Swift’s letter to her Senator follows a big donation she made to a corporation referred to as the Tennessee Equality Challenge (TEP). In April, Swift donated $113,000 to them as a result of she felt “impressed by the work” of TEP.

About one month earlier than the 2018 midterm elections, the Grammy Award-winning singer broke her political silence and pressed her followers to register to vote. LGBTQ rights and protections performed a significant function in her breaking her silence.

She wrote, “I consider within the combat for LGBTQ rights, and that any type of discrimination primarily based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I consider that the systemic racism we nonetheless see on this nation in the direction of individuals of shade is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.”

Learn Swift’s full letter to Sen. Alexander above.