Drag queen Lady Bunny has come to the
defense of Taylor Swift after she faced backlash for her new single
“You Need to Calm Down.”
In the video for the single, Swift and
a number of openly LGBT celebrities from Laverne Cox to RuPaul and
Ellen DeGeneres are living a rainbow-colored life in a trailer park
as homophobes protest on the sidelines. The video ends with an appeal
to sign a
Change.org petition calling on the Senate to take up the Equality
Act, a federal bill which seeks to add protections against
discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity to
existing civil rights laws.
The legislation cleared
the U.S. House last month and President Donald Trump has signaled
his opposition to the bill.
(Related: LGBT
groups respond to Trump's opposition to Equality Act: “We're
Disgusted.”)
Swift, who previously donated
$113,000 to defeat anti-LGBT bills in her home state of Tennessee,
faced backlash on social media, with some commenters saying that she
was profiting off the LGBT community.
(Related: Kevin
Swanson: God will “cut down” Taylor Swift over support for LGBT
protections.)
In an Instagram post, Lady Bunny
cheered Swift's activism, arguing that the pop star has done more for
LGBT causes than most people within the community.
“I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift. Is
she using gay causes to promote her new song? Sure, just like Born
This Way, I Kissed A Girl and Madonna’s I Rise did,” Lady Bunny
captioned of a photo of Swift.
“My question is this: Regardless of
why she’s doing it, has Taylor Swift done more for the gay
community than most within that community? She donated $113,000.
We’re not all pop stars with that kind of money to donate, but did
we give any to support our own causes? Love her music or hate it,
Swift created a petition which has now been signed by several
presidential candidates. Did you sign or create one? That’s free to
do. Taylor’s petition supports the Equality Act, which bans
discrimination against LGBT people for housing and work. The act
passed the House Of Representatives in May. When I posted about it on
Fecesbook, my post got a couple likes. My next post, about a Florida
man on meth having oral sex with an alligator, got dozens of likes
and shares. So despite what we may suspect is the reason Taylor is
suddenly an ally, she’s doing more than most people in our
community.”
“Why does it take a pop star’s
video to get us discussing our own rights? Because gay media is so
dumbed down? And is gay media dumbed down because they know what we
clicked on before and are therefore just providing us with more
polarizing celeb content? I’ve just looked at the homepage of
several leading gay sites. Most articles are celebrity gossip.
Without Taylor, would most even know about the Equality Act? Are the
gay celebrities in the video posting about it? There is an election
coming up. If we make no demands from politicians, then we get
nothing from them even if they win with our support.”
“Whether I like her music or not,
Taylor’s petition is a demand. Where is yours?” she concluded.