Taylor Swift criticises Trump's stance on gay rights: 'An incredibly harmful message'

The singer promised to become more engaged in politics this year

(Getty)

Taylor Swift called on one of her senators in Tennessee to support the Equality Act, which would protect LGBT+ rights, on Saturday.

In a statement posted to Twitter, the pop star asked senator Lamar Alexander, a republican who represents her adopted state of Tennessee, to “please, please think about the lives you could change for the better if you were to vote for the Equality Act in the Senate and prohibit this harsh and unfair discrimination.”

The statement makes good on a promise from Ms Swift earlier this year that she’d been engaging in politics more.

It’s a change of pace for the country-to-pop musician, who was criticised by fans in 2016 for remaining silent during the tumultuous presidential election.

The Equality Act would expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act to ban discrimination in employment, housing, jury selection and public accommodations based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

It passed the Democrat-controlled House last month, with support from every Democrat in office. It is expected to be turned down for a vote by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

“To vote against this bill would be to vote against the wishes of most Tennessean and Americans,” Ms Swift wrote in a letter addressed to Mr Alexander.

She also commented on the Trump administration’s position on 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,’” she wrote.

“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,’” she continued. “That statement implies hat 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.”

Ms Swift did not address Tennessee’s other Republican senator, Marsha Blackburn, who was elected in 2018 and is generally much more conservative than her counterpart.

The Independent has reached out to both senators for comment.