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Taylor Swift Pens a Powerful Letter to a Tennessee Senator in Support of LGBTQ+ Rights

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?HAPPY 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. 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. 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. Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally. ????????????? Click the link in my bio to sign the petition for Senate support of the Equality Act.

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Taylor Swift is making her support of the LGBTQ+ community known at the start of Pride Month! On Friday, the 29-year-old singer shared a lengthy letter written to Tennessee senator Lamar Alexander. In the message, Taylor — who has lived in the southern state since she was 14 — advocates for passing the Equality Act, which would shield LGBTQ+ members from discrimination in the workplace, schools, and other forums. The bill has already passed through the House and will go before the Senate.

“I hope we can all put aside partisan affiliations when it comes to matters of basic human rights,” Taylor wrote. She also notes that protecting those human rights will also lead to more jobs in the state as multiple major companies, such as Amazon, Hilton, and IKEA have opposed anti-LGBTQ sentiments and feel it would “negatively affect their ability to do business in Tennessee.”

The “ME!” songstress — who also linked to a Change.org petition that supports the Equality Act — went on to denounce President Trump’s attitude toward the bill, adding, “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. One cannot take the position that one supports a community while condemning it in the next breath as going against ‘conscience’ or ‘parental rights.'”

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