It’s no secret that there are homophobic bigots all around this country. The red states don’t have the franchise on anti-LGBTQ hate, although sometimes it definitely feels that way. Tennessee is a red state, and TN legislators are trying to out-hate all of the other red states. Republicans in Tennessee have introduced the “Slate of Hate”: twelve separate bills all designed to further marginalize, punish and criminalize LGBTQ people’s everyday existance. The bills include: an attempt to roll back gay marriage, a criminalization of nudity in locker rooms (I sh-t you not), and making it legal for adoption agencies to refuse to allow children to be adopted by gay couples.
Taylor Swift lives and votes in Tennessee, as we saw last year when she finally came out of the political closet, endorsed a local Democrat and encouraged her fans to all register to vote and then vote in the midterms. Taylor has decided to once again use her platform locally/state-wide. She donated a six-figure sum to the Tennessee Equality Project:
Music superstar Taylor Swift says the efforts of a Tennessee LGBTQ advocacy group to fight a handful of contentious bills moving inside the state’s Republican-controlled General Assembly inspired her to make a sizable donation.
According to the Tennessee Equality Project, Swift donated $113,000 to the organization on Monday. The group posted a handwritten letter from Swift, where she cited the recent petition of Tennessee faith leaders who opposed a series of bills that they say target LGBTQ individuals.
Taylor also included a handwritten note with her donation, and the Tennessee Equality Project made it public. She wrote:
“I’m writing you to say that I’m so inspired by the work you do, specifically in organizing the recent petition of Tennessee faith leaders standing up against the Slate of Hate in our state legislature. Please convey my heartfelt thanks to them and accept this donation to support the work you and these leaders are doing. I’m so grateful that they’re giving all people a place to worship.”
Taylor is smart about business, which I’ve known for years, but I’m increasingly impressed about how smart she is politically, and what she chooses to speak about in the past two years. To be fair, I’m pretty sure she’s still an idiot in the Love Department. But otherwise, I’m impressed.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Nashville lesbian here. Thank you very much, Taylor. These hate bills being pushed through are horrendous. Not only hurtful to married gays such as myself, but more to young people in schools subjected to bullying and worse. So hypocritical, as the state is slobbering over build outs for corporations like Amazon ($$), but totally unwilling to legislate to foster a modern, safe, open and democratic culture.
This. I’m glad that she’s doing this.
Can we talk about the heading of her personalised stationary?
Taylor Swift
Born 1989
Loves Cats
She’s so on brand…
Love her
No shade from me. This was a great thing to do. We’ve wanted her to use her fame for good for years, she’s finally talking the talk. Good for her.
Say what you want about her but she truly is a kind generous person. Sure she’s done some problematic things but the crap she gets is so over the top. And how is she an idiot in the love department now ? She’s been with Joe for a long time now and seems very happy .
She’s made some poor choices in the boyfriend dept, but…so have lots of people. That was also in her early to mid 20s too, and she was still in sort of a high school mindset, it seemed. She has been dating this current guy for quite a while and they’re pretty low key.
Good for her for this donation.
113k is such an odd number to donate. Don’t you all think? In the UK we’d query if that had to do with taxation but I don’t know how the system works in the US
Glad to see her do good work
She just likes the number 13, It’s her lucky number.
Her favorite number is 13 so it probably has something to do with that.
I was also wondering what the significance of the amount was, because it couldn’t have been random. Thanks for explaining @rose & @Miles
So.. Kaylors are saying shes coming out soon and shes testing the waters.
Ha. Kaylors. If, IF Taylor Swift does have any sexual interest or sexual history with women, the only reason why she may get to talk about it without (liberal) bigots having meltdowns, despite her thirst and her problematic past, is because she’s One Of The Good Girls and the rumors started before she tried to claim anything else. She’ll be a part of the tiny tiny group of obviously flawed, high-profile women who aren’t Gen X or Baby Boomers getting to have a say on where she falls on the Kinsey scale without asshole bigots bending over backwads to ‘splain otherwise. The usual Gaytkeepers might actually STFU for once and let a girl speak her truth. She better not say that it’s only been a situationship with a woman or two and not a long, committed relationship though- gays and straights will say that doesn’t count and think she’s a drunk male gaze wh*re or something. But Taylor probably has never mentioned same-sex attraction or relationships, so until then I’m not going to jump to conclusions.
Good for her, no shade from me.
honestly, this is wonderful. ty Taylor oxo
Good for her. She’s a wonderfully charitable person.
I can’t believe the depravity of the proposed laws! Have they no shame?!?! Good on Taylor for taking a stand against them.
As a resident of Kentucky who’s also a fan of her music, I applaud her. I’m so happy she came out politically and showing people just because you’re a legal resident of a state does not mean you support that state’s politics.