Taylor Swift Celebrates Pride Month During Wango Tango Performance
Taylor Swift is proudly displaying her support for Pride Month.
The hit-making singer took the stage at iHeartRadio's Wango Tango 2019 on Saturday night in a rainbow-themed ensemble, which included rainbow-colored leather jacket featuring super-long fringe, matching sneakers and high-waisted rainbow shorts.
Amid her set -- which contained hits from her entire career and an appearance by Panic! At the Disco's Brendon Urie to sing their new single, "ME!" -- Swift took a moment to express her support for the LGBTQ community.
"I just feel like who you love and how you identify, you should be able to live your life the way you want to live your life," she told the crowd.
Earlier on Saturday, Swift shared a lengthy letter she wrote to Senator Lamar Alexander, a Republican from her home state of Tennessee, asking that he support the Equality Act, a piece of legislation which has already passed in the House that protects LGBTQ individuals' rights.
"I'm writing to you today in anticipation of a very important vote coming up," she wrote. "As you know, the House has just passed the Equality Act, which would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in their workplace, in their homes and in schools. For American citizens, to be denied jobs or housing based on who they love and how they identify, in my opinion, is un-American and cruel. I know there are those who say this disrupts their religious freedom, but there are hundreds of Tennessee faith leaders who have recently (and very vocally) disagreed and spoken out to defend the LGBTQ community."
"A recent study shows that over 64 percent of Tennesseans support laws for protection of LGBTQ people against discrimination," Swift continued. "Reports are that the majority of Americans across ALL parties favor these nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people (liberals at 81 percent, moderates at 76 percent, conservatives at 55 percent). To vote against this bill would be to vote against the wishes of most Tennesseans and Americans."
Swift also rejected President Donald Trump'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.'"
"That statement implies that there is something morally 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, nonbinary or transgender parents, sons or daughters," she added. Concluding her note, she urged the senator to "please think about the lives you could change for the better if you were to vote to support the Equality Act."
A post shared by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on May 31, 2019 at 9:05pm PDT
The 29-year-old singer has also created a petition on Change.org to help rally her fans behind supporting the passage of the Equality Act in the Senate. Two days after it was created, the petition already gained over 84,000 signatures, with a goal of 150,000.
"Let's show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally," the petition's statement concludes.
There is currently no date for when the Equality Act will go before the Senate.
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