Taylor Swift Urges GOP Senator to Support LGBTQ Equality Act: ‘Think About the Lives You Could Change’

Taylor Swift is imploring Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee to defend LGBTQ rights by supporting the Equality Act. The legislation, which prevents discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, was passed by the House in May and has now moved to the Senate.

Swift shared the request in an open letter on her Instagram on Saturday, the first day of LGBTQ Pride Month. She called on Alexander to “put aside partisan affiliations” and show support for “basic human rights” by backing the bill.

“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,” Swift captioned the post. “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.”

Swift also criticized President Donald Trump for opposing the passage of the Equality Act.

“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,’” Swift wrote in the letter. “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.”

Trump previously panned Swift after she endorsed Democratic candidate Phil Bredesen over Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn in the 2018 Tennessee Senate race.

“Let’s say that I like Taylor’s music about 25% less now, OK?” he told reporters in October 2018.

See Swift’s full letter below.