When Taylor Swift speaks, everybody listens… including the White House!
On Monday, at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, Taylor Swift — along with Todrick Hall and several of their drag queen co-stars — accepted the Video of the Year award for her pro-LGBT clip You Need To Calm Down.
Related: Who Knew Taylor Swift Was A Soccer Superstar??
While onstage, the Shake It Off singer reiterated her support for the Equality Act, which would prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In her address, the musician said:
“You voting for this video means that you want a world where we are all treated equally under the law regardless of who we love — regardless of how we identify… At the end of this video, there was a petition and there still is a petition for the Equality Act, which basically just says we all deserve equal rights under the law. I want to thank everyone who signed that petition because it now has a half a million signatures, which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from the White House.”
While mentioning the White House, the songstress made a gesture where she looked at her “watch” — to signify something was overdue.
In the speech, the 29-year-old was most likely referring to Barack Obama‘s administration’s policy of responding to petitions with a certain amount of signatures — something Donald Trump has not continued.
However, on Tuesday, White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere released a statement responding to Taylor’s remarks.
While the current administration “opposes discrimination of any kind,” they do not support the bill.
The statement read:
“The Trump Administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and supports the equal treatment of all; however, the House-passed bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights.”
In June, Swift posted a letter to Tennessee Senator, Lamar Alexander, urging him to vote for the legislation. She penned on social media:
“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.”
She continued:
“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.”
Thoughts??
[Image via Ivan Nikolov/WENN.]
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