Taylor Swift Gets Political—Again

Taylor Swift re-entered the political arena Saturday with a polite but pressing letter to Sen. Lamar Alexander, the Hill reports. "I respect your position in our country and your ability to really impact positive moves forward," she wrote the Republican from her home state of Tennessee, but urged him 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." Swift mentioned that over 64% of Tennesseans are said to support LGBTQ-protection laws, and nearly a dozen companies, including Amazon, feel "the proposed anti-LGBTQ 'Slate of Hate' in Tennessee" would hurt their ability to do business in the state, per Variety.

But the singer saved her biggest swing for President Trump, over a comment by a top administration official after the House passed the Equality Act in May: "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 writes. "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 also tweeted a glowing message of support for the LGBTQ community and asked people to sign her petition urging senators to back the Equality Act. (Swift first got political last year, and took a hit from Trump.)