Singer Taylor Swift called on the U.S. Senate to pass the Equality Act to mark the beginning of Pride Month.
Last month the House approved the bill that would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Its fate in the upper chamber is uncertain at best.
On Saturday, Swift tweeted out a change.org petition in support of the legislation and wrote a letter to one of her senators, Republican Lamar Alexander, who is the chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
#lettertomysenator https://t.co/EKYMXZw5U9 pic.twitter.com/Ym0mGeOHgc
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 1, 2019
Citing studies and reports that show Tennesseans and Americans across the country support protections for LGBTQ people, Swift wrote, “To vote against this bill would be to vote against the wishes of most Tennesseans and Americans.”
Swift also said she opposed the White House position on the issue.
“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,” Swift wrote. “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, nonbinary or transgender parents, sons or daughters.”
In addition to her letter, Swift shared link to a petition on Twitter and after nine hours gained roughly 38,000 signatures.
The Equality Act, passed 236-173 along party lines, would greatly expand nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ individuals to include not only the workplace, but also education, credit, jury service, federal funding, housing, and public accommodations.
Democrats believe the Civil Rights Act should be amended beyond current protections for race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. But Republicans said the measure would undermine religious freedom, destroy Title IX programs for women, and undercut parental rights.
The Republican-led Senate won’t take up the bill. Sponsor David Cicillini, D-R.I., said he hopes public support for the bill will force Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to reconsider, but that remains unlikely.
