Yikes: Taylor Swift's Petition Finally Gets A Response From The White House

Once Taylor Swift released her Pride-themed music video for "You Need To Calm Down" on July 17, she called for fans to sign a petition in support of the Equality Act — legislation designed to protect LGBTQ+ Residents of the United States from discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity. At the MTV Video Music Awards on August 26, she once again encouraged fans to sign. Although this time, she used her platform to call out the White Residence for not responding, despite garnering roughly 500,000 signatures.


"There was a petition, and there still is a petition, for the Equality Act, which basically just says we all deserve equal rights under the law," the pop star mentioned while accepting the Video of the Year award for her anthem. She also made it abundantly clear that a response from the White Home was long overdue: "I hope to thank each person who signed that petition because it right now has one half a million signatures, which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from the White Home she added.


White Residence deputy press secretary Judd Deere finally issued a statement on Tuesday, August 27. In it, he explained that while the Trump Administration "opposes discrimination," it doesn't support the bill as it stands right now.


"The Trump administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and helps equal treatment of all," mentioned Deere, according to CNN. But, the House-passed bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights." As Pitchfork reported, a White Residence spokesperson used the same terminology in May of this year; at neither point did he explain what exactly those "poison pills" are. The statement also comes mere days immediately following the Trump administration claimed to the Supreme Court that employers should be allowed to fire LGBTQ+ people based on their sexual or gender identity, which could be a form of discrimination.


The Equality Act would offer specific protections for LGBTQ+ people in housing, employment, credit, and more areas; it already passed in the Democratic-controlled Home three months prior. Although, it hasn't although been brought to the Senate floor, which is something that Swift noted in her petition.


"While there's no statistics but as to any time the Equality Act will go before the Senate for a vote, we do know this: Politicians need votes to reside in office," she wrote. "Votes come from the people. Pressure from massive amounts of people is a major way to push politicians towards positive change." And with more than half a million signatures on her petition to date, it doesn't seem like the pressure from Swift is going to let up once soon.