White House Dismisses Taylor Swift’s VMA Call To Back Equality Act

Taylor Swift used her platform at Monday night’s (August 26) MTV Video Music Awards to call out the current administration for not responding to the Equality Act that she’s been pushing since the release of “You Need to Calm Down.”

“So I first want to say thank you to the fans, because in this video, several points were made. So you voting for this video means that you want a world where we are all treated equally under the law regardless of who we love or how we identify,” the 29-year-old chart-topper said at the podium, while accepting her win for Video of the Year alongside her co-stars. “At the end of the video there was a petition and there still is a petition for the Equality Act which basically says we all deserve equal rights under the law. And I want to thank everyone who signed that petition because it now has half a million signatures which is five times the amount that it would need to warrant a response from The White House.”

Just a day later, Swift received a response from White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere, who stated that the Trump administration rejects discrimination but does not support the Equality Act. “The Trump administration absolutely opposes discrimination of any kind and supports the equal treatment of all; however, the House-passed bill in its current form is filled with poison pills that threaten to undermine parental and conscience rights,” a statement via CNN read.

As per the petition, it seeks to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation and gender identity as part of the protected umbrella. Click here to read Swift’s petition, which has currently amassed more than 516,000 signatures.